


Suckerpunch

by StrawberryNightmare



Series: Cabe and Leah [1]
Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-09 14:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7804630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryNightmare/pseuds/StrawberryNightmare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leah Hudson is a hired gun for the Irish mafia in New York. When her boss sends her to Los Angeles to assassinate Special Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland Security will she follow through? Or will she uncover a truth she didn't know she was looking for?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Start Swimming

Leah Hudson hated open water. It was dirty, unpredictable, and generally disgusting. As she floated down the mucky river, she grumbled to herself the entire time, mostly cuss words. How stupid was she to get to this point?

She was a criminal. A hired hand for the Irish Mafia in New York.

Of course, she wasn’t in New York.

No. No, she was in _Ohio_.

Fuck Ohio.

Her well planned assassination of a traveling businessman that had done whatever it was he did, did not go as well as she planned. She made mistakes, miscalculations, and the guy was squirrely. And so now she was in a gross river in Ohio.

She probably could have climbed out of the river already, but she had to admit, it was sort of peaceful. This was the first time in the past week that Leah had had the time to think. Tracking this businessman had been on the more difficult side. Maybe she was getting too old for this job. She didn’t get much time to think in this job and she wasn’t paid to think. She just did the dirty work, no questions asked.  
Well, this time, she had a lot of fucking questions.

“Uh, miss? Are you alright?” somebody called out from the river bank.

Sighing heavily, Leah moved so her body was under the water and her head was above the water line. She looked over at the bank and saw a concerned looking man and woman. She tread water slowly.

“Yeah, I’m cool. Just…you know…swimming. Or something.”

“That water’s pretty gross, you know?”

“I figured. I am in northern Ohio, after all.”

“Are you…is it like a protest?” the woman asked.

Leah sighed again. “A protest against my stupidity at my choice of a job.”

The pair grew more confused. They clearly didn’t want to be involved in her rescue, but at least they asked.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming out.” She swam the few feet and began walking up the river bed. Her cotton shirt and jeans were soaking, making her feel about thirty pounds heavier. She had lost her shoes at some point. That was her fault for wearing flats. Sitting on the cold ground, Leah looked up at the sunset. 

“Do you need us to call someone for you?” the woman asked, still confused, but also concerned.

“No,” she answered. “Thank you, but no. I’m good.”

They left her, probably happy to get away from the odd woman. Leah sat on the river bank for a few minutes, silently contemplating her next move. She had completed her job, even if it was a tad messy. It was all about making sure the crime couldn’t be tied back to her. After all, who wants to hire an assassin that everyone knows about?

With a loud, drawn out “fuck”, Leah climbed to her feet and began heading back towards town. It was time to go back to New York.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, you chose to return to New York after not finishing the job?” Andy Greene asked, staring Leah down. The 47-year-old Irish mobster was one of the higher ups in New York and people listened to him. He was once a pretty violent man, but now he handed out those duties to others, like Leah. Although he could still get down and dirty when needed, but he didn’t like to. Andy was one of the few who knew just how old Leah was, which is why she kept close to him.

She didn’t trust him much, but enough.

“Look, man, the job is finished as per the parameters you gave me. You wanted someone dead, they’re dead. What else could I do?”

“Don’t tie it to me!” he yelled. “You know the rules!”

Leah rolled her eyes. “Andy, Andy, Andy. Listen, nobody can tie it to you. Just relax. It’s fine. He’s dead, as you asked. I made it clean. Sure, shit went enough wrong that I ended up in a river, but still, it can’t be tied back to you. So it’s fine.” 

“I hate you, Hudson.”

She mocked being offended. “Ouch, Andy. Ouch. Now, what do you need me to do?”

Andy looked up at her. His hair had gone completely white a few years back, likely from the large amount of stress he was under. It wasn’t easy running the mob. Her favorite thing about Andy was his ice green eyes. She had met a lot of people in her years, looked in a lot of eyes, and she hadn’t seen eyes like his often. Maybe once before.

“I need you to go to L.A. Got big business out there, needs to be taken care of.”

“Nah. Nuh uh. No way.” Leah held her hands up and slowly started backing away. “I don’t do that. I don’t. No.” She began to turn around.

“Hudson, stop.”

She paused, but kept her back to him. Leah knew shouldn’t listen to him. This was madness.

“You know I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t important.”

“Andy, please. Your big business crap isn’t the stuff I do. I know what it means.” Big business only meant one thing. Law enforcement. Politician. Somebody that Leah shouldn’t be killing. Killing mobsters, murderers, and rapists was one thing. Killing innocent people? Killing law enforcement?

Without legitimate reasons, which she knew Andy wouldn’t give, she couldn’t do it.

“Hudson, you’re under my employ.” His voice was low and threatening. She knew what his tone meant.

Leah looked over her shoulder at him. “Rule #1,” she reminded him. _No law enforcement_.

“I don’t care about your rules.”

“You should. Do I need to remind you of Rule #7?” _Break the rules and she’d come after you._

Andy stared intently at her, almost willing her. “I need this done and you’re the only one I trust.”

She turned completely around. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Her employer smiled. “No, but blackmail will.”

Leah growled.

“I know all of your secrets. I have you by the balls.”

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. He thought he had her, but he really didn’t. “It’d be so easy to kill you right now.”

“And then you’d be running for the rest of your miserable, short life. Just do this and we move on.” He kept staring at her, his eyes begging her to take the “smart” choice.

She was screwed, either way. She did this and was fucked or she killed him and was fucked.

The life of an assassin.

“Fine, jackass. Who am I going to kill?” She gave up. She’d figure something out, she always did. Or she’d end up in a river.

“Special Agent Cabe Gallo.”

“The hell kind of name is Cabe?”


	2. Collars and Suits

Leah was on a plane to Los Angeles two days later. She spent most of her time up until landing in LA deeply regretting her choices in life. This was not a smart plan. It was too quick and too dangerous.

Homeland Security. God only knew why the Irish wanted an Agent for Homeland Security dead. And now she was involved.

Well, she could probably still pull out. She hadn’t even seen Agent Gallo in person yet. She was only in town.

Sitting in first class, Leah was going over the small file that Andy had been able to put together on this Cabe Gallo. Almost 60, divorced, deceased child, former Marine, former Federal Agent. What a guy. The best way to take him out would be a sniper shot. Anything up close and she couldn’t guarantee she’d get the job done.

She had to say though, looking at his photo, he was handsome. Old, but handsome.

Leah didn’t get to ask questions as the hired hand. Andy told her who to kill and she’d kill them. She didn’t ask why, though usually in her tracking of the mark the reason would make itself clear. With Agent Gallo, she was at a loss. In his work with Homeland Security, he had no connection to the Irish mob that she could see.

He came across as a decent person, so he wasn’t on their payroll. He wasn’t making deals. He was a good agent.

So why did Andy want him dead? And why did Andy want _her_ to do it? He seemed pretty insistent. She knew it wasn’t just about her doing as he asked. There was something more to it.

He knew her rules, whether he ignored them or not. He knew how she felt about killing law enforcement.

She didn’t want to kill innocents. Although Leah could never be absolutely certain, and it depended on your definition of innocent, she was sure she’d been pretty careful over the years. While you could never be positive with law enforcement, Leah tried to steer clear.

She had been a cop once, years and years ago. It hadn’t worked out for various reasons, including her inability to follow the rule book in a host of ways. And the other cops didn’t like her.

The question she had now was what would she do? This Agent Gallo didn’t have the hallmarks of her typical victims. So that had to mean that the Irish wanted him gone simply because he was in their way. He wasn’t crooked or corrupt. He was simply doing his job.

That wasn’t something she took care of. She dealt with the bad guys. Rule #2: _Only kill someone who deserves it_.

Agent Gallo, as far as she could see, didn’t deserve it.

This was her fault, really. A hired gun? What was she thinking?

Dumb. She was dumb.

Leah had never been to Los Angeles before. The farthest west she had been was Austin. She had heard that traffic in the city was bad, but this was awful. Considering she currently lived in New York City, she shouldn’t be that bothered by traffic.

But holy shit was traffic in Los Angeles awful. It took forever to get out of LAX.

By the time Leah reached her hotel, a mere 11 miles from LAX, she was pissed. She had already wasted a good hour between getting her stuff off the plane and getting to her hotel. She was also extremely bored.

Settling into her hotel room, Leah tried to plan her next move. Obviously, she had to find Gallo. And then she’d have to watch him. Only then could she formulate her plan to kill him and escape L.A.

Oh, she was _dumb_.

As she snacked on McDonald’s French Fries, Leah looked over her file on Agent Gallo again. She wasn’t able to get everything on him, but enough to know he was, obviously, working in Los Angeles for Homeland Security. His file also mentioned he was working in on a special project, but didn’t say anything else.

So, her next step was to break into Homeland Security. Or find someone to hack in for her, but as an assassin, she didn’t know many hackers. And certainly not anyone she trusted to do this for her. While a lot of big names hackers claimed they didn’t mind hacking the government, fewer would actually do it.

Like usual, she was on her own. Leah generally preferred it that way.

She had broken into a federal building once before. She got shot on her way out, however. Leah wasn’t really looking to get shot again.

Luckily, she was partially prepared for breaking into a federal building.

Changing into a black pantsuit, Leah hailed a cab and headed out to the U.S. Homeland Security Office. Armed with a fake I.D., Leah walked right in the front door. With all of the confidence of an agent that actually works in the office, the woman breezed through security, signing in at the front desk as required of a visiting officer.

Now was the hard part. She needed to get on a computer to access information about Agent Gallo. That was a bit harder. She would have to find an empty office that would be empty for long enough. Or she could find a port to plug her laptop in. Problem was, there were cameras everywhere. She could dodge them as best she could, but there was still the risk they’d see her face.

Her wig, which made her a blonde as opposed to the brunette she was, only gave her so much of a disguise. But then again, the government knew very well that she was a hired gun. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been to prison before. If they caught her, or was troubled by her, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out who she was.

She had to be quick. She couldn’t just wander the halls until she found an office or someplace to plug her laptop in. Leah would just have to choose.

So she stayed on the first floor and headed for the janitor’s office. That would be hopefully be the easiest. She navigated the lobby and headed through a door and down a long hallway. Her eyes scanned the hallway as she went, keeping an eye out for exits and anybody else. Luckily, there were only a few people in this part of the building. She needed luck.

Leah found the main office empty, slipped on latex gloves, and headed in, shutting the door behind her and locking it. She closed the blinds on the door and got to work. Plugging in her laptop, she began connecting to Homeland’s network. She had to get out of here quick. Who knows when somebody would even walk by.

Her fingers moved quickly as she logged in. Leah moved straight for Agent Cabe Gallo’s file.

“Oh pretty,” she murmured to herself as his photo came up. She scrolled through his file, eyes scanning for something about where he was.

“Oh, what’s this…,” her eyes caught a word. _Scorpion_. “What the fuck is Scorpion?” she asked herself.

Searching through, she found only an address. A garage not far away.

“Time to meet Scorpion.”

With her information found, Leah unplugged her computer and put it back in her bag. She wiped down the surfaces she touched, just in case, and then left the office. Once the door was shut behind her, she slipped her gloves off and put them in the bag.

The first part of the job done, she just had to get out of the building alive. And not in handcuffs.

Leah tried to walk as quickly as she could, without being obvious, but it was hard. She was getting anxious. That wasn’t good. She didn’t get anxious often. It wouldn’t work in her job, but every once in a while, it crept up on her.

She used her shoulder to push through to the lobby and was met by a throng of people. Careful to avoid eye contact, but not look too shifty, Leah continued through the lobby and towards the door.

“Excuse me, miss?” someone called out.

Leah’s heart skipped a beat and looked back over her shoulder. A security guard came around the desk.

“Can I help you?” she asked sweetly in a southern accent.

“Sorry, you’ve got to sign out,” he said, pointing to the desk.

Leah chuckled and headed back. “Of course. You think I could remember that. Sorry, sir.” She quickly signed out. She winked at the guard as she turned to leave.

God, she was dumb.


	3. The Glory and the Scum

The carpet in her nice hotel room would likely come out ruined if Leah paced anymore, but she couldn’t help it. Logic dictated that she should go stake out the garage where this “Scorpion” was located, but there were too many unknown variables.

This wasn’t how she worked.

Her phone rang, startling her. Leah stopped pacing and pulled it out of her suit pocket, knowing exactly who it was. People didn’t call her. She had no friends and the only contacts she had were other hired guns. They generally didn’t call.

“Hello Andrew,” Leah answered, annoyed at the man on the other end.

“Andrew, hmm? Why are you so mad at me?” the man on the other end asked.

“If you have to ask, then you’re too dumb to be in this business.”

Andy chuckled. “Ok, I take it the job is going swimmingly then.”

“Please don’t check up on me. You know I don’t like it.”

“I just want it done, Hudson. The sooner the better.”

“If you know anything about this business, then you know I can’t rush it. If I rush it I get caught. And if I get caught, I will take you down because I don’t like you and I didn’t want to do this.”

“And yet there you are. Just get it done, Hudson. I got more work for you.” He hung up without saying goodbye, an unfortunate trait.

Leah tossed her phone on her bed and stared at the wall, trying to decide what to do.

Agent Gallo had an impressive record from what she saw. He was a Marine, then joined the FBI, and was now at Homeland. No doubt, even at 58, he could easily take her down if she didn’t do this right.

So, scouting the location it was.

First, Leah changed into jeans, a plain blue t-shirt, and a faux leather crop jacket. No weapons, just your average tourist. This was recon, not the final job.

After driving around the block in a taxi, Leah then rented a car and drove back herself. She wasn’t good at science, but she had perfected the art of getting a flat tire years ago. It could be dangerous, but it also afforded her the opportunity to scope out a place while having a legitimate reason.

Timing was crucial for this to work. She needed to be close to the garage, but not right on top. Don’t be too obvious. Leah had no idea what kind of camera’s they had around the garage. Did they have just in front of the building on camera? The whole block? If it was a Homeland Security thing, they might have an entire block or more under surveillance.

She had to be careful.

Driving around the neighborhood, without driving near the garage, Leah waited for her tire to blow. It took longer than she would have liked, but thankfully LA was big. Finally, her tire blew. She kept driving and turned onto the street where the garage was.

Rolling to a stop a few feet away from the entrance, Leah put the car in park.

“Oh man,” she whined. It was always the time to fake. No telling when they would be watching her and she had no idea what she was really up against, so she had to be on all of the time.

She slammed her hands on the steering wheel, the turned off the car and got out. Pretending to be unsure of what was wrong, Leah went around the whole car before she found the rear right wheel was punctured. She did her best to look frustrated and upset. After staring at the wheel for a second, she began checking her surroundings.

The garage was pretty nondescript. No signs of what it housed. Just a garage. A black SUV, obviously government issue, was out front. A few other, much cheaper and older, cars were up and down the street.

Another quick glance told her there didn’t appear to be any cameras outside the building, but she continued to act under the assumption that someone was watching. Better safe than sorry.

_Better safe than attempting to kill a Homeland Security Agent_ , she snarked to herself. 

With a deep sigh, Leah set about to change her tire. She had rented a Nissan Versa Note, a car which she had never driven before. She had no car in New York. There was no fucking point in owning a car when you lived so close to the city center. She had learned to love cabs, and now Uber. Plus, walking and biking was good.

Unlocking the car, Leah pulled open the trunk. She flipped open the hidden compartment and stopped.

“Son of a bitch,” she cursed.

There was no spare tire. How was that possible?

“You need some help, little lady?” a voice from her right said, startling her.

Leah jumped back a foot, her hands up in front of her. She looked over the guy. White, late 20s, and he fit in perfectly with the aesthetic around this part of town.

“Do I look like I need help?” she snapped, her voice cracking. She’d like to think she was pretending, but the guy had startled her.

“Your tire is flat, yeah, it looks like you need help.”

Leah grimaced at him. “I’m not dumb. I can change a tire.”

“Going to be hard without a spare. Unless it’s somewhere else,” the guy said in a low voice.

Leah cocked her head, watching him. He had a knife under shirt and right hand that seemed to be slowly going towards it.

“We got a problem out here?” a deep, gravelly voice said from behind her.

The man in front of her shifted, his hand pulling away from the knife at his waist. Leah smirked. She dropped her hands.

“Just got a flat tire,” she said, keeping her eyes on the first guy.

“Well, I guess you’ve got help now,” the first guy said. He backed up a couple of feet and then began heading up the sidewalk.

Leah kept watching him, feeling something was off. With a shrug, she turned.

And came face to face with Agent Cabe Gallo. His photo didn’t do him justice. A little heavyset, wrinkled, and certainly in his 50s, it was his eyes that drew her in. Leah had seen a lot of blue eyes in her life. She was always surprised by how varying eye color could be. But his blue eyes were the most intense, gorgeous shade of baby blue.

“You need help with that?” he asked, pointing to her car. He stared into her eyes, talking to her.

“I uh-I’m going to have to, going to have to call someone,” she stumbled over her words, still lost in his eyes. “Like what is it, triple A or something? I don’t know.” Leah shook her head.

_Get a grip, lady,_ she internally yelled at herself. _You’re an assassin, not a teenage girl._

Leah motioned to her trunk, noticing the confused look on Gallo’s face. “They didn’t put a spare in the damn trunk,” she said, sort of laughing.

He looked at the trunk and then at her, his eyes calculating. He didn’t trust her. “Not your car?” he asked.

“Hah, no. I’m from Michigan. Just visiting. It’s a rental,” she explained. “I guess I should have checked before I left Enterprise, but I suppose I was too trusting that they wouldn’t give out a car with no spare.” Leah shrugged again.

Gallo’s hand twitched towards his gun and Leah almost took a step back. He was suspicious. She couldn’t completely blame him, but damn.

“I just need to call somewhere to get a tire. Or a tow. Ugh,” she said. Leah turned back to her car and began going over her options. She could probably kill him here and just run, but she had no weapon and he certainly was packing heat. She might be able to rush him before he pulled out his gun, but there were too many witnesses.

She was never supposed to talk to him.

This was bad.

“I’ve got a mechanic. We can help,” he finally said.

Leah turned as he pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Yeah, Happy? The woman out front has a flat tire. She needs a tire. Can you get one?” He paused, still watching Leah carefully. “Great.” He ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. “Happy will take care of it. It’ll be a few minutes.” He eyed her. “Would you like to come inside?”

_No, no, no, no._

“Are you kidding? I’ve seen horror movies that start out like this. I can wait here,” she said, closing her trunk.

Gallo chuckled. “I work for Homeland. This isn’t a horror movie, darling.”

Glancing back at him over her shoulder, she pretended to contemplate it. She could absolutely not, under any circumstances, go in that building. She shouldn’t even be talking to him. She was breaking rule #3. _Don’t talk to the mark if at all possible._

“It won’t be long, I promise,” he said.

Leah looked back through the window of the trunk. She couldn’t be doing this.

“I’m Agent Cabe Gallo, badge number 2835. You can look me up, if you want to.”

Leah sighed. Turning, her shoulders dropped. “Yeah, alright. I’ll come in.”


	4. Tell Me, Mechanist

Agent Cabe Gallo didn’t trust many people. He had spent enough time working cases for FBI and Homeland that it made him mistrustful.

And for some reason, he didn’t trust this young woman.

Brunette, about 5’7” or maybe 5’8”, she carried herself well. She was used to fighting. He could by her stance when confronted with the wannabe gangster. She was defensive.

And she didn’t trust Cabe.

“I told you my name, what’s yours?” he asked, watching her sit at a table in the office. Deputy Director Cooper had called him minutes before the woman popped her tire near their garage to tell him that somebody had broken into the Homeland Security Office to look him up. He now had his guard up and this woman was number one on his list.

“Oh, uh. Leah,” she answered, somehow almost tripping over the name.

Cabe turned to Tobias Curtis, the psychologist of the group, who was standing next to him. The younger man was watching the woman carefully, analyzing her as he does everyone.

“She’s telling the truth. Probably thought about lying, but decided against it,” he said as he leaned over to stare at her more closely. “Wonder why?”

“The fuck?” Leah muttered, her eyes dancing between Cabe and Tobias. “Who are you people?”

“We’re Scorpion,” Tobias answered, as if it was the most obvious answer.

Leah narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. “Wow, that explains so much,” she said sarcastically.

“These guys are geniuses,” Cabe explained. “They help Homeland solve some of the trickier cases.”

Leah sat back in her chair, studying the two men in front of her. “Geniuses? Interesting.”

“Oh, look Cabe, she’s studying us. Wonder what she’s looking for?” Tobias said out loud.

“I’m looking for the door because you’re all insane,” she said in a matter of fact tone.

“Far from it, in fact,” Walter said as he walked through the room, not even sparing the woman a glance.

Her eyes followed him briefly, before looking back at the two in front of her. “Oh boy, I always wanted to meet a genius,” Leah said sarcastically. She locked eyes with Cabe, almost pleading with him. But for what? “How did you get involved with these-no, you know what? Forget I asked. It’s none of my business. I just want to go back to Michigan,” she rambled.

“Where in Michigan are you from?” Tobias asked her, standing up straight finally.

“Motor city,” she replied. “Where are you from?”

“So you like sports?”

Leah scrunched up her face. “So because I’m from Detroit suddenly I like sports?”

“You phone case is the Red Wings logo,” Tobias pointed out.

Leah looked down at the table where her phone was laying. The red and white cover was face up. She looked back up, her eyebrows raised. “Oh. Touché. No, I don’t like sports. I like hockey, but only because I grew up in Detroit. It’s pretty hard to grow up in Detroit and not like the Wings, even during their so called ‘Dead Wings’ era. Still loved them.”

“I’m a hockey fan too,” Cabe said, trying to relate to her so she would relax.

Leah chuckled. Far from being pleasant, the laugh was almost sarcastic. “Haha, no, sir. No, you are not. Being a Kings fan does not make you a hockey fan. They are…no.” She shook her finger at him.

“Hey, the Kings have two Stanley Cups and are older than you, young lady,” he gently admonished her.

Leah laughed, sitting back in her chair and looking at the ground. “Oh my god.”

“What?” he asked in confusion.

She shook her head as a slight blush hit her cheeks.

“Oh, she’s embarrassed. Why be embarrassed? Don’t like Grandpa calling you young lady?” Tobias pushed, greatly enjoying the turn in the conversation, goading both of the other occupants of the room.

“Grandpa?” Cabe nudged the younger man.

“Oh, um. No, it’s just that it’s been a while since someone called me young lady. Years, in fact.”

“You can’t be that old,” Tobias commented. His eyes narrowed as he eyed her closely again.

“She did say she remembered the Dead Wings era. That’s generally up until the 1980s, I think, maybe 90s,” Cabe added.

“Technically the Dead Wings era is like 67 to 82, when the Illitch family took over as owners. And then we drafted The Captain in 1983. But really, I consider the Dead Wings up until the 90s just because we didn’t really have what I consider success. The current Playoffs streak began in 1991, so that’s about when I think we started to hit our stride,” Leah explained. 

Tobias and Cabe stared at her in surprise. Cabe didn’t know many women who enjoyed sports that much, but he knew it was far more common these days.

“I’m older than 40, let’s just leave it at that,” Leah said. “I’m not a young lady, but also not a Ma’am. I hate being called Ma’am.” She shuddered.

“The Kings are still older than you, Leah,” Cabe said.

“This is very interesting,” Tobias muttered.

“What is it that you do, genius?” Leah asked, her brown eyes staring him down.

“I’m a behavioral scientist. I study people,” he answered, ignoring her look.

“ _That_ is very interesting. Tell me, behavioral scientist, what am I thinking?” she asked, her tone starting to get dark.

“Probably that you want to punch me. Not unusual. I get that a lot.”

“Oh, close. But I’m not thinking about punching you. I don’t like to hurt my hands,” she said with a wink, waving her fingers. “I’ve got delicate hands meant for delicate work.”

Cabe chuckled. He sort of liked this woman. She had spunk.

“Ok, well.” Tobias turned to Cabe. “You’re on your own now, Cabe. I don’t need to get hurt.” The young man walked off, leaving Cabe and Leah alone.

The woman watched Tobias walk away, then turned to Cabe. “Weak as water,” she joked, winking again.

Cabe laughed lightly as he sat down across from her. “Tell me, Leah, why are you in this part of Los Angeles?”

“Interrogating me?” she questioned, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“No, sweetheart. You’d know if I was interrogating you. Just talking.”

Leah relaxed slightly. “I’m a tourist, Agent Gallo.”

“Tourists don’t come this way.”

“No, you’re right. But idiots do,” she said. Leah’s shoulders fell. “I had a boyfriend and things got serious and I balked when he wanted to move to L.A. for his job. My first marriage didn’t end well and I wasn’t sure, even at my age, I could do it again. So I let him leave and now I regret it. I came here to find him.” She didn’t meet his eyes as she told her story, instead staring at the ground. She shifted uncomfortably in the hard plastic chair.

“I’ve heard of dumber things, Leah. We all make mistakes when it comes to love,” he said in a kind voice.

Leah smiled softly at him, but crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Sweet, but it is incredibly dumb. Even at my age, there’s still plenty of fish in the sea.”

“Love is love. If you love someone, you generally do crazy things,” Cabe pointed out.

She shook her head, a few locks of her hair falling out from her ponytail. “It’s illogical to act on such base instincts. If a few of us choose not to follow love, the world survives.”

“Illogical? You sound like my guys. You a secret genius?” Cabe joked.

“Nah,” she said, laughing. “I just watched a lot of Star Trek growing up. Spock and his distance from human emotion was my favorite. Just get the job done.”

Cabe opened his mouth to respond, but the door opened and Happy walked through.

“All done, Cabe. New tire on, old tire off. Good as new,” she announced.

“Great. Thanks so much, Agent Gallo,” Leah said as she stood up and began heading for the door. Happy tossed her the keys as they passed one another, a silent word between the women.

Cabe quickly followed her out of the garage, shooting Happy a grateful glance. Leah was already halfway across the street by the time Cabe was out the door. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to get away from him and Scorpion. He couldn’t say he was surprised. The guys tended to have that effect on people.

“Be careful, hmm?” he said as he jogged up to her.

Leah turned back to him, still eyeing him carefully. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, Agent Gallo. Thanks, by the by.” She started to turn back to her car, then stopped and turned to face him again. “How much do I owe Happy?” she asked cautiously.

“Don’t be silly. On the house. You just take care, okay?” he said.

Surprised by the gesture, Leah smiled. “Thanks. I, uh, appreciate it. You and the genii stay safe, hmm? Working for Homeland is dangerous, I’m sure.”

He stepped back as she opened her door and got in the car. “We’ll be fine. We always are.”

Leah gave him one last glance before shutting the door and starting her car.

Cabe walked back towards the garage, watching as she drove off. Something didn’t sit right and yet he couldn’t help but be drawn to her. She was attractive. And at least she was remotely close to his age.

And at least she wasn’t the one who had gotten into the system to track him down. Too bad he’d never see her again.


	5. Your Body is a Battleground

Leah couldn’t drive back to the hotel quick enough. She couldn’t get up to her room quick enough before she needed to throw up. Dodging into the room with the vending and ice machines on her floor, Leah puked into the corner.

The job done, her forehead sweating, she continued on to her room. Leah stood in the middle of her room, her breathing growing heavier by the second.

She was panicking.

The shakes started small, but grew by the second until her whole body was shaking heavily. She pulled her hands into fists, trying to calm herself, but it didn’t work. Leah threw herself down next to the bed and buried her face into the comforter, gripping it tightly as she screamed as loudly as she could into the fabric.

Over and over she screamed, letting it all out until finally, her body stopped shaking and her mind stopped burning.

Leah let go of the comforter and stood up. She turned and hit the wall as hard as she could, twice. Groaning, Leah pulled her hand back, grimacing at the plaster in the wounds. Stupid choice, really. This was going to take more than a band aid to fix.

She collapsed to the floor, falling onto her back. Resting her wounded hand on her chest, she looked up at the dingy ceiling. She wished she could say this hadn’t happened before, but every so often, a kill would get to her. Although, it wasn’t like she had killed Agent Gallo yet.

Leah never talked to the mark. She didn’t do it. It only created problems, like the one she was facing. This was dangerous. Far more dangerous than just assassinating someone. This was complicated.

Not only had Agent Gallo seen her, but so had, at minimum, three of his colleagues. _And_ , Leah had been done enough to give them her first name and the state she was born in. She had given them too much, but the Doctor had thrown her off. Leah had never met someone who did that kind of stuff. It was unnerving. Combined with her photo, they could easily find out who she is.

Her breathing steadied, the out of her depth assassin began going over her options. “You can go back, set up in the building across from the garage and shoot Agent Gallo the next time he leaves,” she muttered to herself. “Or, you can leave. You can go back to New York to kill Andy and then get the hell out of dodge, but likely you’ll be dead before you even leave New York. So, last option is to get the hell out of dodge. Go somewhere. Mexico maybe? Canada? No, New Zealand. New Zealand is nice. Nobody ever checks New Zealand.” She couldn’t go back to New York and pretend like this never happened. If you didn’t complete the job, then you paid the price. Andy had sent her here and he’d be furious if she didn’t finish.

Looking around the room as she sat up, Leah needed to make a decision. “So get up, asshole. Get up and get the hell out of Los Angeles,” she pushed herself.

She scrambled to her feet and began gathering her things. Unlike most people, she kept most of her things in her bag, so she didn’t need to pack many things if she had to leave in a hurry. Like today. Within 30 seconds, she was ready to go. She left her room key on the bureau and slung her bag over chest. Grabbing her rental keys, she jammed the key into her left pocket as she headed for the door.

In the next five seconds, she reached the door and pulled it open.

As the door swung open, she came face to face with someone she didn’t expect to see. The wannabe gangster from outside the garage.

“Need help?” he asked, looking at the bag slung over her chest.

Leah’s head tilted to the side as confusion filled her head.

In the next second, he punched her in the sternum. Leah fell back into the hotel room, landing on her bag. The man came at her, shutting the door behind him. Leah kicked, hitting him in the stomach with her right foot and then she swung up with her left, catching him in his chin. Quickly, she slipped her bag off and jumped to her feet, taking a defensive stance.

She had to end this quickly. She didn’t have time to fight. The assassin needed to run.

The wannabe gangster rushed at her, madness on his face. He made it too easy for her. She hit him with a right and then a left, followed by another quick right, even though her hand was screaming in agony. He stumbled back a foot, but Leah didn’t let up. Leah kicked his left knee, making him collapse to his knees. Once there, she wrapped her legs around his neck, twisted around his body, and threw him to the other side of the room.

She hit the ground and he hit the front of the bed, groaning in pain as he did so.

Leah jumped to her feet and headed for the door. She stopped and turned back around, watching as her attacked climbed to his feet unsteadily. Eyeing him carefully, Leah waited for the right moment. She had to time this perfectly to get the ending she wanted.

When the man had stood up enough, Leah took off as quick as she could in the short distance she had. At the last possible second, she jumped, feet first. Her size 7 feet slammed into his chest with as much force as she could possibly muster. Leah hit the floor too hard, but even better the man flew back through the glass sliding door and onto the balcony.

Leah groaned loudly, arching her back as she tried to alleviate some of the pain. She slowly pulled herself to her feet, watching the now broken door. The man didn’t move. Given the small amount of blood around him, she assumed he was still alive, for now.

She needed to move.

Leah pushed herself up, grabbed her bag, and exited the room. There was no way for her to know how many people were with her attacker. She had no weapons, her back hurt, and her right hand was badly damaged.

Hurrying through the hallway, she took the stairs. She couldn’t risk getting caught in an elevator. Her footsteps sounded in the empty stairwell as she took two at a time, leaving smears of blood on the railing as she went.

Finally hitting the first floor, Leah pushed through the door and into the hallway. A few people lingered around, some walking to their destinations, but most ignored her. Leah moved to the lobby. Her rental car was out front, parked too far from the front door, but it was her best chance out of here. As she briskly walked through the lobby, Leah dug the keys out of her pocket.

A man came at her from her right, but she didn’t have time to react. He caught her in her throat with his forearm, clothes lining her. Leah’s neck caught on his arm and she jerked before hitting the ground, once again landing on her bag. The people in the lobby screamed, but naturally, no one came to her aid.

Coughing and trying to find her breath, Leah struggled on the ground. Looking up, Leah watched as the man stood above her, reached down, and pulled her to her feet. Still coughing, she tried to pull away, but her head was spinning.

The man yanked, pulling her closer to him as he headed for the front door. Leah wheezed, trying to find her breath. Her throat burned. She couldn’t say she’d ever been hit in the throat before. It was an effective technique.

Sunlight blinded her eyes as they left the hotel and hit the sidewalk. Leah needed to get away from this doofus. She bent over, pretending to be in more pain than she was, although it wasn’t too much of a stretch. As her new attacker yanked her by the back of her jacket, she popped up, headbutting him from the front. He let go of her, giving the opportunity to pull away. She took a strong step back and elbowed the prick in his face.

“Shit!” he yelled as blood began to pour from his nose.

Leah kneed him in his groin, pushed him to the ground, and ran towards her car. But as she grew closer to the rental, she realized her keys were gone. She looked over her shoulder at the hotel, knowing she had probably dropped the keys when the guy had caught her in the throat.

So much for a quick getaway.

Leah kept running, heading out of the parking lot and down the street. She needed to get to LAX and fast.


	6. Not Enough

Cabe watched the woman drive off in a hurry and then headed back inside the garage. Something felt off, but he couldn’t explain it.

It was just a hunch.

“Cabe, I don’t know why this is bothering you,” Walter began.

“Walt, come on. Somebody broke into Homeland just to look up his file. That could mean a lot of things, most of which are dangerous,” Paige pointed out, giving Walter a stern look.

Cabe felt for the woman. She tried so hard to get these guys to even sort of understand people, but it was quite an uphill climb.

“I know, but there’s a good chance it’s nothing. Tell him, Sly,” Walter said, looking over at Sylvester’s desk.

“It’d put it at a sensible 76.3%,” Sylvester calculated.

“Sly!” Walter admonished his friend.

“See?” Cabe said. “It’s bad news. Somebody is after me and that puts you guys in danger. I’m going to head back to headquarters. I’ll take a look at the video surveillance; see if I can ID this person.”

“No need, I’ve got the video here,” Walter said, typing on his computer.

Cabe held back a sigh. He should have known that they would hack into Homeland. He walked around the desk to view the video.

“This is from the lobby, when the woman signed in. She had an ID for another office, so she signed in at the front using the name Charlotte Ryan,” Walter explained as the video rolled.

“She doesn’t look up,” Cabe muttered, watching closely. The woman was smart. She kept her head tilted down enough that the camera couldn’t catch enough of her face, but she probably didn’t look too obvious to the people around her. She was a smart cookie.

“She may not know exactly where the cameras are, but she knows they’re there,” Tobias said as he watched over Walter’s left shoulder. “She’s calculating,” he added quietly, pondering to himself.

Walter switched to another view as she walked through the lobby and then through a door. They never got a good view of her face.

“No cameras in that hallway?” Cabe asked.

“None that I can find,” Walter answered. He rolled through the video until the door opened again and the woman came back out. “And here she is again.”

They watched as she headed through the lobby again. The guard stopped her near the door, she paused, and returned to the desk to sign out.

“How can she be so good at not facing the camera?” Cabe asked as she turned and left the lobby once more. “People slip up.”

“She’s pretty good,” Tobias said. “Good body language. Nothing to set anyone off, but still avoiding the camera. She must do this a lot.”

Cabe backed up, his mind running. What did she want with him?

“Homeland couldn’t get her fingerprints on anything,” Cabe said.

“What about the pen?” Tobias asked.

“It’s too small of a surface. There’s too much overlap. You’d never be able to get a clean lift,” Sylvester said from his desk.

“So, still no way of IDing her,” Walter said.

“Why would she be after you, Cabe?” Paige asked softly.

“There could be a million reasons, Paige. I’ve had a long career. She could be someone I put away, a loved one of someone I put away, or anything like that. Without an ID, I can’t know.”

“She didn’t look at much in your file, Cabe,” Walter said, still going through Homeland’s system.

“So, what? She was just looking up his name?” Happy asked.

Cabe stepped back up to the computer. “She was looking for something specific.”

“Like who you work with,” Walter added, pointing at the part of the file where it said Cabe was currently working with Scorpion.

“The woman, from earlier? Leah?” Paige asked the unasked question.

“It could be,” Cabe said. “She’s about the same height, wouldn’t you say, Walter?”

“I would say so. A wig is easy. But what next?” he asked, looking up at Cabe.

“She could be working with someone, just scouting the garage. There could be an attack coming,” Cabe theorized.

“Or maybe she decided against it?” Tobias pointed out. “Her body language didn’t read as hostile. She might have legitimately had a blown tire. She might have been scouting and she might have decided it wasn’t worth it. Maybe her job was just you and didn’t know we were here? There’s a lot of options and we simply don’t have enough information.”

“Regardless, I want everyone out of the garage until we figure this out. You are all at risk. I won’t have you getting hurt because of me,” Cabe ordered. “So pack. Now!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leah ran a couple of blocks before she stopped and called a cab. Once in, she ordered the taxi to LAX.

Although she was anxious, Leah pushed herself to be calm as she stood in line, waiting to buy her ticket out of this hellhole. Being anxious in public was one thing, being anxious in an airport was a sure fire way to get her arrested.

So she calmed down by thinking about how nice it would be to finally visit New Zealand. Like most Americans, the island country only came on her radar thanks to Lord of the Rings. She wasn’t one for hiking, but she’d certainly give it a try in New Zealand.

Reaching the counter, Leah smiled sweetly. “Hi, how are you? I’d like a ticket on the next flight to New Zealand, please.”

“The next flight is at 6:30pm. Would you like Business, Premium Economy, or Economy?” the woman asked.

Leah tried not to grimace. 6:30. She had to find a way to hide for the next four hours. And she wasn’t going to sit in the airport the whole time. Shit.

“Premium is great, thanks,” Leah answered.

She waited as the woman behind the counter worked quickly, taking Leah’s information to get her a seat on the flight. The female hitman was using a fake name with a fake passport for the trip. No sense in using her real name.

After several minutes, the woman finally finished the work and she handed Leah a ticket.

“Cheers.” Leah left the line and paused near the security line. She could spend about 3 hours hiding in the bathroom, easy. Or she could go to the nearest and cheapest motel and hide out for a few hours before she had to be back to go through security and find her gate.

With a heavy sigh, Leah exited the airport and hailed a cab. Cheap motel it was.

Being Los Angeles, there were plenty of motels for her to choose from. She found the closest one and bought the room for the night, even if she wasn’t staying all night. The best part about cheap motels? No names. Just cash.

Leah settled into her crappy motel room, setting her bag on the floor in front of the bed. She just needed to keep her head down for a few hours and then she could leave the country. Although she wasn’t actually tired, Leah curled up on top of the covers of the bed, closing her eyes.

Like a lot of people, Leah had an overactive imagination. She often spent most of her night replaying events in her mind, even things that happened to her when she was a child. She had a lot of regrets in her life and her brain enjoyed beating her over the head with those mistakes and regrets.

Right now, all she could think of, as she laid in the dirty motel bed, was Agent Gallo. She hadn’t gone over his record with a fine tooth comb and God knows if they would have included any horrible things he had done, but from what she’d seen, he was a good man. A good man, a good Agent, a good person. He was doing good work.

And the Irish wanted him dead.

Leah may not be the one to kill him, but likely Andy would send someone else, if he hadn’t already.

He wasn’t safe.

Leah sat up in bed, sighing heavily. It wasn’t right to leave him like this without warning him. She eyed the phone. It would be easy to call him. Going back to the garage was stupid. But it wasn’t enough to just tell him over the phone, was it? She didn’t know how he’d react, but she had to tell him in person. She knew she had to say it to his face, make sure he understood just how much danger he was now in.

Putting her head in her hands, Leah took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

She had to warn him. It was the right thing to do.


	7. Are You Done With Me?

Leah, once again, hailed a taxi and headed for the garage Scorpion apparently called headquarters. She fretted in the backseat the entire time. This whole thing was not going to end well for her. The woman just hoped she’d be able to get away from Agent Gallo and get back for her flight in time.

Her plan was to give the cabbie some money so he kept the meter running while she walked into the garage, stayed near the door, told Agent Gallo the relative truth, and then get the hell out of there.

With luck, Gallo wouldn’t shoot her.

Of course, she wasn’t planning to tell him that _she_ was sent here to kill him, but considering how much he hadn’t trusted her earlier, she imagined he’d put two and two together.

So it was important she make this quick, but also get the point across.

Leah also had to make sure those two idiots from the hotel didn’t catch her again. She couldn’t keep fighting her way out of this. She was good, but part of it was knowing that trouble was coming. It would help her, but only to a point. Not to mention, all they had to do was set up a sniper and she was done for.

Not even Leah could run from a sniper.

The closer the cab got to the garage, the calmer Leah became. She was in the zone. She was used to killing people for a living, she could easily do this.

“Keep the meter running, please,” she said as the cab pulled over to the curb just outside the front door. She slipped three 20s through the little hole in the plexiglass.

“No problem, lady,” he replied, happily taking the cash.

With a deep breath, Leah pushed open the cab door and hurried over to the front door. She entered the building, cautious of what kind of environment she was walking into. 

The members of Scorpion were busy, rushing around, collecting things. What had she walked into?

“Hey!” one of the men called out as the door slammed behind Leah.

Leah took a defensive stance, watching as a couple of the members of the team stopped what they were doing.

“I just need a quick word with your Agent Gallo and then I’m gone,” she said.

“Not likely,” Agent Gallo said, walking down the stairs from the upper level.

“Look, I’m out of time and so are you. Take me seriously when I tell you someone’s coming to kill you. I don’t know who and I don’t know when, but you’re in danger,” she said quickly.

Agent Gallo narrowed his eyes at her as he walked closer. Leah backed up to the door, groping behind her for the handle. She had said what she needed to and judging by how he looked like he wanted to arrest her, she was fairly certain he grasped the gravity of the situation.

“Alright, good luck and good bye, Agent Gallo,” Leah said before opening the door. She hurried out and turned. Stopping, Leah cursed loudly. The cabbie was gone. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Looks like your ride is gone,” Gallo said from behind her.

Leah turned, letting out a deep breath. She saw his hand on his waist, probably sitting on his weapon. “Well fuck me. I’ve got to get out of the city. Out of the state. Somebody’s trying to kill you and now someone’s trying to kill me. Get your guys out of here and find somewhere safe.”

“Somebody’s after you?” Gallo questioned. His fingers twitched slightly.

“Yeah. I know too much. So naturally, I’m on the list,” Leah said as she looked around nervously. “We’re in the open. We should not be. I don’t know if they’ve got snipers, but if they do…,” Leah trailed off, looking back to Agent Gallo. “I don’t need you to trust me, Agent Gallo, I just need you to believe me.”

He stood still for a moment before nodding. “Fine, I believe you. What’s your plan?”

Leah chuckled and shook her head. “Oh no, I’m not sharing that with you. Already told you too much. I’m getting out of here.” Leah turned and began heading down the street. She didn’t know the way too well, but she just needed to get to a safe place to call a cab and get out of here.

“Hey, wait,” Gallo said.

Against better judgment, Leah paused. She heard a door open behind her.

“If you’re in trouble too, I can protect you.”

Leah outright laughed and turned around completely. “I didn’t come here for protection, Agent Gallo. And truth be told, you can’t protect me any better than I can protect myself. I am better on my own. I just came here to warn you because you deserve that.” The Doctor and one of the men were standing behind Gallo, watching the exchange.

“Why? How could you know what Cabe deserves?” the other man asked. “We know what kind of man he is. But how do you?”

“What does it matter what I know or how I know it? Jesus Christ. Get the point already! Somebody is going to try to kill your friend and might just accomplish it. I don’t know who, I don’t know when, and I don’t know why. I did what I could do.” Leah looked at Gallo. “The rest is up to you. You solve things. Solve this!” she snapped before turning and walking away.

“I could arrest you!” Gallo threatened, walking after her.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Then you’re sentencing me to death. Comfortable with that, Agent Gallo?”

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes almost pleading with her, but she didn’t know why. And she didn’t care.

Leah kept walking. She had a flight to catch.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She returned to the motel after catching yet another cab. Leah had done all she could do. She warned him. Hopefully he would take her seriously.

But she couldn’t get his eyes out of her mind. There was something in that look he gave her. He was pleading, but for what? More information? To let him protect her? What?

Maybe Leah could have told him that it was the Irish, but that was a lot of information to give. And it went against her self-preservation. If she outright told him it was the Irish, it opened her up to a lot. Maybe she’d call Homeland once she got out of the country.

Of course, he might be dead by then.

Agent Gallo worked for Homeland. Surely he had plenty of resources at his feet? He could figure it out.

Curling back up in the bed, Leah’s mind was still running through all of the possibilities. She still felt guilty.

That wasn’t anything new though. Leah often felt guilt after killing. How could you not? Taking a life was relatively easy in some senses, but there were still lasting consequences. She might have her ten rules to navigate the assassin world, but she was still a killer.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Leah tried to shut out the thoughts, but Gallo’s blue eyes wouldn’t go away. They were calling to her, reminding her of the life she left behind twenty-one years ago.

At 18, Leah Cross graduated from high school and immediately took the Police Officer’s Exam. She passed and several months later graduated from Police Academy to be a Police Officer in Farmington Hills, Michigan. She lasted three years in Farmington before she quit and moved to Nashville to try again. Nashville last just a year. With a last ditch effort, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska and tried again. Finally, Leah gave up on being a cop in 1995.

It wasn’t that she was a bad cop, per se. She just couldn’t stand the injustices of the world. The rich white men who got away with everything. The men who got away with rape. She beat up one too many criminals for any of the cities to approve of. White male cops could get away with murder, but Leah couldn’t hit an alleged rapist without getting fired.

Her union rep told her she had “too much passion for justice”. Aka, she was too angry. Too violent.

Gallo reminded her of those years for some reason. Maybe because he was law enforcement. Maybe because he had kind eyes. He sort of reminded her of her Captain in Omaha. Gruff, but wanting nothing but the best for those around him. Captain Peake gave Leah a lot of opportunities, but in the end, she was too destructive. He kept in touch with her until 1998.

That was the year Leah dropped off the radar and started doing hits for money. It was in 2000 that the Irish found out about her and Andy brought her in. Sixteen years later, she had killed a lot of people for the Irish.

She should have known that eventually they would come for her. She had killed too many people; knew too many secrets. With her rules, she was a risk. A risk at running. A risk of turning states evidence.

But Leah also knew there was nowhere in the US that would be safe for her. The Irish had a lot of resources and a lot of hidden assets. She wouldn’t be safe in prison. She wouldn’t be safe in witness protection.

Like she told Gallo, her best bet was on her own.

So here she was, curled up in a dirty motel bed, trying to forget about the Homeland Agent that was likely going to end up dead.

Hearing footsteps and voices outside of her room, Leah tensed. _Please just be walking by_ , she thought, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

“Open the damn door, Leah!” someone shouted. Based on the voice, she guessed it was Agent Gallo.

“Fuck!” she groaned.

Just what she needed.


	8. My Masquerade

Cabe knocked on the door. “Just open it! Let’s not play games. We know you’re here,” he said loudly. Walter had tracked the woman with street cameras to this dingy motel near LAX.

After a second, the door opened. Leah stood in the doorway, glaring at the group. “Are you dumb or just pretending? Or maybe you want to get killed? Why are you here?” she asked, clearly angry.

“Let us in and we can talk,” Cabe said.

“You know what, Agent Gallo?” Leah began.

“If you’re about to say what I think you’re going to say, don’t. Just let us in. We’re not going anywhere,” he interrupted.

If possible, the woman’s glare got worse, but she moved to open the door further so they could come in. The group of six entered the motel room and waited while she shut the door and then moved further into the room.

“Well, Agent Gallo, what would you like to talk about before you die? Better make it good because this is your last chance,” she said in a snippy tone.

“Who is after me?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

She smirked. “The guy that you saw bothering me earlier? He attacked me in my hotel after I got back. He also had a friend with him, whom I left in the street. My guess is they’re in on it. Whether they’re after you or just me, I don’t know. But they certainly are a part of it. So there. That’s what I know.”

“You’re leaving something out,” Toby said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d want to hear about me dropping kicking the one guy out on the balcony, or me getting clothes lined.” She gingerly touched her throat. “That was a new one. It fucking hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Ah, deflecting. You’re still leaving something out,” Toby pushed. “Why do they want you dead?”

“I told you, I know too much.”

“And yet not enough,” Happy commented.

“Excuse me for not asking for specifics on the situation. I was a bit preoccupied. Next time, I’ll make detailed notes,” Leah said sarcastically.

Cabe smiled. At least she had something of a sense of humor.

“You’ve never seen either of those men before today?” Cabe asked.

“No, no I haven’t. I know! You guys can get out of here and go to the hotel and get the security footage and track those guys down while I go about my way,” Leah suggested, smiling.

“Good idea,” Walter said. He sat down at the table and pulled out his laptop. “What’s the name of the hotel?”

“The fuck?” Leah muttered. Walter gave her a look and so she told him the name of her hotel and where it was located.

Cabe looked up at her and shrugged. “It’s their thing.”

“Ok, I know. But like…why? Why do you work with them? Why is this a thing?” she asked, annoyed by the entire day. Cabe could tell she was having a bad day.

“They do good work. They save lives.”

Leah’s eyes went wide and she looked like she was fighting back a grimace. Shaking her head, she walked around the bed and sat down, putting her head in her hands.

Cabe looked back at Walter. “Anything?”

“The connection is slow. It’s going to take a few minutes.”

“In the meantime,” Toby said as he stepped closer to Cabe. “I am getting a pretty good reading on this woman. I think she was the one sent here to kill you,” he whispered.

Cabe looked over Toby’s shoulder at Leah. “Well she’s going about it in an awfully funny way.”

“Clearly she’s had a change of heart. If she’s telling the truth about these guys trying to kill her, then maybe the organization she works for believed she would never have carried out the crime. Who knows? But I don’t think we should be here. I think we should be far from here,” Toby said.

“Maybe Toby’s right,” Paige said quietly, standing next to Cabe. “Something’s really wrong here, Cabe. It’s bad enough that someone apparently wants you dead, but this woman clearly knows more than she’s saying.”

Cabe frowned, still watching Leah on the bed. He knew they were right, but he couldn’t admit it. Not yet. He needed more facts.

“I got it,” Walter finally said.

Cabe, Toby, and Paige walked around Walter and looked over his shoulders.

They watched footage from the hotel lobby. After a few seconds, Leah came around a corner, her large bag slung across her chest. As she neared the front door, a man stepped up and clothes lined her.

“Ouch!” the quartet all reacted as the woman hit the ground painfully. Cabe grimaced. That must have hurt.

To their right, Leah groaned, fully knowing what they were watching.

As the video ended, Cabe shook his head. “Ok, Walt, grab his face if you can. See if you can find out who he is. Maybe we can connect him to someone.”

The room grew quiet as Walter got to work, only the sound of his fingers hitting the keys on his computer echoing in the tiny room. Happy and Sly stayed near the door, as far away from Leah as they could be.

Cabe looked over at the younger woman again. He had to get more from her. Walking around the bed, he stood in front of her. Resting her head on her hand, which was in turn resting on her leg, Leah didn’t look up at him.

“If you’re afraid of going to prison for whatever illegal activity you’re involved in, don’t be. I can get you a deal,” he said quietly.

Leah snorted. “Yeah, ok.”

Cabe knelt in front of her, making them almost eye level. “I mean it, Leah. Whatever you’re involved in, I can help,” he said gently.

She didn’t look impressed. “Save it for some lesser fool, Gallo. I don’t know what you expect me to be able to tell you.”

“Tell me who wants me dead and why.”

“God help me, I have no clue why,” she admitted. She frowned sadly and Cabe was surprised to find how much it made his heart ache. “I-I,” she trailed off.

“I’m not arresting you for anything, no matter what you say,” he assured her.

Leah stared at his face intently, seemingly taking in every wrinkle, every mark. She finally settled on his eyes. After a long minute, she sighed. She moved so she was leaning her arms on her legs and so she was closer to Cabe’s face.

“Look, I’ve seen your file. I know not everything’s in it. I know there’s so much missing and yet, there’s nothing there to suggest why on Earth someone wants you dead. Do you know what that says to me?” she asked quietly.

Cabe shook his head.

“It suggests it’s personal. And I don’t do personal. I don’t do people’s personal vendetta’s. It’s not my business. That bugs me. Somebody’s trying to kill me. They brought me here under false pretenses. Whether that means they actually want you dead or if it was just a ruse to get me some place where they could get to me, I don’t know. You’d think there’s a much easier way to kill me, but men have a flair for the dramatic, I’ve found.”

“Who?” he pushed.

Leah’s shoulders rose and fell as she breathed in deeply and then slowly let the air out. He watched her lips part and felt the air on his face.

“The Irish,” she finally answered.

Cabe stood up. “Irish?” His heart sped up.

“Yeah. Although, I suppose there’s the option that it’s a rival just trying to get rid of me,” she said. “That could work too.”

Leah looked away from Cabe. He followed her line of sight. Her bag.

“I could call him,” she said aloud. “That would help determine if it’s the Irish or not.” Leah looked back at Cabe. “I don’t know if you can connect the Irish to these two guys. They were sloppy as can be. Probably local help that was hired just out of sheer convenience and who will also end up dead, especially given how shitty they are at their jobs. So, let me make a call. See what we can find out, hmm?”

Cabe knew he should say no. He shouldn’t trust her, that’s what his gut said. But a voice in his said was saying the opposite.

“Fine, but speaker phone,” Cabe finally said.

“Okay, but everyone keeps absolutely quiet no matter what,” she said. Leah looked over at the rest of the group. “I mean it. I can admit to murdering the President and you keep quiet, got it?”

Toby grimaced. “Yeah, we get it.”

“Fine.”

Leah got up from the bed, walked over to her bag on the floor, and opened a side zipper. Fishing around, she pulled something out. Cabe kept his hand near the weapon on his waist, just in case. But as she turned around, he saw it was just her cell phone. He relaxed.

Leah dialed a number and waited as it rang. Toby walked around the room to stand next to Cabe so he could watch Leah. She rolled her eyes.

“Is it done yet or are you still mad at me?” a male voice on the other end said after the ringing ended.

“Depends. Are you going to tell me why you hired two dipshits to attempt to kill me or are we going to pretend it wasn’t you?” Leah asked.

Straight to the point.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man said.

“Andy, please. How many years have I given you? Loyal service. And now? This? I’m not only disappointed, I’m pissed off. You could at least send the best to kill me. Or do I not even rank that?”

Silence.

“Pretend all you like, Andy. I know the hallmark of a lame Irish wannabe gangster when I see him. Been around them enough to know, don’t I?”

“It was insurance. You shouldn’t have even seen them unless you didn’t do your job,” Andy finally admitted.

Leah gritted her teeth, her face growing red. “You son of a bitch. What was so important about this damn Agent that you had to send someone to kill me?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s done.”

“It matters to me!” Leah yelled. “You used me. You put me in an impossible situation and didn’t give me a way out. _How dare you!_ I’ll be sure to send those two punks in a bag to the cops. Let them know who is behind all of this so you go down for what you did to me,” she threatened.

Cabe made a step towards her, but Leah held up a hand, stopping him. She winked.

A game. It was all a game.

“Leah, please. I just wanted to be sure this got done. That’s all. Agent Gallo deserved this.”

“How do I know what he deserved? I don’t get to know, do I? I never get to know,” Leah said sadly, looking at the dirty carpet. “I told you, rule #1. No law enforcement.”

“And you’ve broken your rule, haven’t you?”

Leah looked up and locked eyes with Cabe.

She sighed before answering. “I did.”

Silence again. “Then why did he enter your motel room about 15 minutes ago?”

Leah looked panicked for half a second before she started to laugh. “Can’t kill him in public, now can I? Law enforcement deserves something better.”

“Quick or slow?”

“Quick. I’m not a bastard,” she answered without emotion. Leah looked away from Cabe, ashamed. “Now, is it just those two idiots outside or did you bring the big guns?”

Cabe could just barely hear the man breathing on the other end of the phone call. “There’s a few more, I believe. More of those guys friends. I’m sorry, Leah. You have been loyal. But this partnership is at an end.” For a moment, Andy did sound sorry. But, Cabe figured the guy wasn’t really that sorry.

Leah motioned to the window. Cabe nodded and quickly made his way around the bed. As carefully as he could, he peaked out behind the curtains. There were a few cars in the parking lot, but only one that had been there when they arrived. The other cars looked unfamiliar. Cabe moved back and motioned for everyone to get away from the window. They complied quickly.

Leah snorted. “I’m going to come for you, Andy. One day. One day, when you’ve started to forget, when you’ve stopped looking over your shoulder every day, I’m going to kill you. And I’m actually going to enjoy this one.”

“I doubt it.”

“And by the way, Andy, rule #9.”

“I don’t know that one, do I?”

“No, I don’t think you do. You’ll die, but Sean and the others? They’re going to prison.” Leah smiled as she moved to the front door. “Rule #9: _Always keep evidence_.” She hung up the phone as she looked through the peep hole.

“This is going to be violent,” Leah commented, glancing over at Cabe.

Cabe took out his gun. “No kidding. I just want my kids out safe,” he told her.

Leah nodded. “Got it, pops.”


	9. Go Away

Leah had no weapon so she was now at a distinct advantage. She eyed Gallo’s gun, thinking quickly about how she could take care of the men outside, but she didn’t think the agent would hand over his gun willingly and she had no idea of how many men were out in the parking lot.

Leah looked back out the peep hole. Think. Think. She knew it would be easier if it was just her here. She glanced back at the five people huddled in the corner of the room. They were a liability. And they were in danger.

“There’s a small window in the bathroom. The more people that can get out of the room, the safer it can be for the people unable to get out,” Leah said as she looked back at Gallo. “Five people huddled in a corner is dangerous. One or two, I think we can protect them. The others can get out, get help.”

Gallo nodded. “Go. Paige, Happy, Walt. Get out. Sly, make yourself small,” he ordered.

They both watched as the two women and Walter left the room and headed into the bathroom. Leah hoped they could fit through.

“Oh, I do not like this,” the large man said.

“Don’t worry, Sly. I’m here too,” the Doctor said as he patted the larger man’s back.

“That’s not very comforting.”

Leah looked back at Agent Gallo. Cabe. If they were going to die, she might as well refer to him by his given name. She studied his face, seeing the worry lines. Leah felt a pang in her heart, knowing this was partly her fault.

“You watch out for them, I’ll take care of these idiots. I don’t suppose you’ve got a backup on you?” she asked.

“What, you came all this way to kill me and didn’t bring a gun?” he joked.

Leah raised her eyebrows. “And have you ever tried to get through airport security with a sniper rifle? It’s not very easy.” She added in a wink.

Cabe shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t have a backup. If I had known, I might have carried more.”

Leah bit back a laugh. “I did warn you, you know, but ok.”

“What are they waiting for?” Toby asked.

“If Andy has a brain, which he mostly does, he would have warned them of me. Certainly, the two idiots from earlier learned that even if you surprise me, you still have to be at the top of your game to get me. Sure, a shootout is the easiest, but mob logic of the 21st century says don’t draw too much attention to yourself. That’s how you get caught. They know there aren’t any cameras here, but they know from the moment they start shooting, every second that passes means a second closer to when the cops show up. They’re better off coming in with fists,” Leah explained.

“Let’s hope so,” Cabe said.

Leah looked out the peep hole again and this time, saw three men getting out of a car across the parking lot.

“Three men,” she began, “possibly a fourth still in the Honda across the parking lot. Only one is walking like he’s carrying. Fourth might have a gun.” Leah took a step back and glanced over at Cabe. “I’ll open, you head out. We can use the cars as cover, keep them away from the room so these two have a chance.”

Cabe nodded his understand.

Leah held up her left hand, while keeping her right on the door handle, and counted down. 3, 2, and she opened the door, stepping back. Cabe hurried through the door and she followed behind. He went right to take cover behind his SUV while Leah went to the left to take cover behind a van parked two spots down. As she hit the front of the van, she heard the door shut.

“Don’t bother running, Leah. Andy wants this done quick. Don’t bother fighting,” one of the men said.

Leah rolled her eyes.

“Rule #6, asshat! Never use the names of the people who employ you! Fast track to getting killed,” she yelled. Peering around the van, she could just make out the reflections of the three men.

Cabe nodded at her and she nodded back. As she rolled around the other side of the van, Cabe reached around the SUV and fired off two shots, before taking cover again.

Leah hit the end of the van and peered around. One of the men was taking cover behind the van, his back to Leah. Silently as she could muster, Leah snuck up behind him, wrapped her right arm around his neck and pulled him back behind the van. He grunted, but Leah tightened her grip. She kept pulling him further away from the rest of the group. He hit at her, but Leah ignored the swipes. He wasn’t able to get a good hit on her, so it was just annoying, not painful.

Leah counted each gunshot, fairly certain she could tell which was coming from Cabe and which was coming from the other guys. She hoped Cabe was doing well.

When she figured she had pulled the guy far away enough, she let him go, spun him around and slammed her right fist into his jaw as hard as she could. He swayed, but didn’t fall, so Leah hit him with an uppercut. The man fell back, hitting the pavement hard.

Leah smiled, heard a noise to her left, and turned. She was met with a punch in the nose. The last thing she remembered was hitting the trunk of a car and then the world went black.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cabe was stuck behind the SUV to a point. To his left, there were no more cars; just open parking lot. To his right, there was a van and a car a few spots down. He needed to draw fire away from the motel room so that Sly and Tobias weren’t hit by a stray bullet, but there was nowhere safe for him to go. So he had to play the game.

Looking around the left side of the SUV, the agent saw no one, so he went up the side, heading for the back of the government issue car. Stopping, he listened. He could just make out what he thought was whispering. Taking a deep breath, Cabe hurried around the corner, gun raised.

One of the men was standing a few feet from him, gun in hand. He saw Cabe coming his way and began to lift his gun, but the federal agent was ready for him. He fired off just one shot, hitting the guy in the right side of his chest and sending him to the ground.

Walking towards the guy, the older man came around the other corner of the car and turned to his left. One of the other attackers darted around the front of the van and Cabe let off another shot, but the kid was too quick and the bullet hit the front of the van. Homeland wasn’t going to be thrilled about paying for this stuff.

He headed for the man he had shot and made sure to kick the gun away. The bleeding man was groaning on the ground, clutching at his wound.

Cabe kept his gun up, looking around, but something was off. He looked to his right, where the attacker’s car had been.

It was gone.

When did it go?

Stepping over the bleeding man, Cabe headed towards the other side of the van, his weapon still up. He paused at the end of the back of the van, took a deep breath, and stepped around the van.

The other guy was gone. But off at the end of the parking lot which connected to the street was the attacker’s car.

They had made a getaway.

“Leah!” Cabe called out, reaching for his phone. “Leah!?”

Frantically looking around the parking lot, the woman was missing. Cabe got on his phone and called 911 to get help for the remaining bad guy. “This is Special Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland Security, badge number 2835. I need an ambulance,” he said quickly, explaining the situation.

Once done, he hung up the phone and headed for the motel room. He headed through the slightly damaged door.

“Sly, Toby!” he called out.

The two men emerged from the bathroom. “It was safer by about 15% in here,” Sly commented.

Cabe sighed in relief. “Find the others quickly. Leah is gone!”

“Gone? Like she left?” Toby asked.

“No, they got her.”


	10. No Compliance

Cabe stood impatiently. He wasn’t one for pacing. He was, however, worried for his would be assassin.

And that bothered him.

“Checking all of the cameras in the vicinity. It’ll take a while to get all of the traffic cameras,” Walter said. He looked up from his laptop to look at Cabe.

“Got something to say, kid?” Cabe asked, staring back at the young man.

“I’m just wondering if we should be trying to save the life of someone who came to this city to kill you. That doesn’t sound like someone we save,” he said.

“We don’t pick and choose, kid.”

“The greater good-”

“You wanna talk greater good? Let’s talk,” Cabe said angrily. He crossed the hotel room they had rented in a different hotel so they could get the work done without being in the open. The garage was still potentially a bad place to be. So here they were. “The greater good in the scenario is not Leah. It’s not me. It’s the dozens, hundreds, if not more, people that the Irish mafia will target. It’s the dozens, hundreds of people that the Irish mafia has killed. The cases with no closure. The possibility that Leah would turn states evidence is reason enough to find her and save her life. We don’t walk away from that.” 

“You don’t know that she’ll turn,” Walter said, trying to point out the other side.

“I do,” Toby said, interrupting their conversation. “I’d give a 0% chance that she’ll turn. She’s about saving herself, otherwise why be an assassin?”

“She saved Cabe,” Paige pointed out.

“Yeah, why is that? Can’t just be a rule she has. She’s an assassin. Assassin’s don’t have rules,” Walter said.

“An assassin that wants to live to old age has rules,” Cabe said. “It doesn’t matter why. All that matters is that she made a choice to save me and now her life is in danger.”

“Why kidnap her?” Sly asked from the other side of the room. “Why not just kill her?”

Cabe had been trying to figure that out since he realized she was gone. “Good question. Might help us find her if we can answer it.”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Paige asked. They all looked at her. “Rule #6.”

“Always keep evidence,” Sly finished for her.

“She told them she has evidence on them. They want it,” Walter added. “So they’re going to torture her.”

“They’re going to kill her, Cabe. A person can only resist torture for so long. The efficacy of torture is for another conversation, but it can, in some circumstances, be effective. She’ll flip before the end of the day. I give her 4 hours, 5 tops. She’s dead if we don’t find her before they flip her. Maybe before then,” Toby told him.

Cabe nodded. He had no way of knowing what she had experienced in her long life. Maybe she was used to torture. Maybe she wasn’t.

“Once the guy from the motel is stable, I’ll talk with him. Maybe I can get something from him to find out where she is,” Cabe said. He looked at his watch.

The clock was counting down.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leah Hudson knew two things for certain as she waited while one of the goons, whom she had learned was named Chris, tied her to a wooden chair.

 **One:** She _was_ too old for this job.

 **Two:** She was going to die at the hands of three witless apes.

 _Fuck_.

Chris grinned at her as he stood back to admire his handy work. He had already punched her about three times. Between that and having her head smashed into a car, she was working on a horrible migraine. Leah hoped she’d throw up on his face.

Instead, she spit blood at him. It didn’t hit his face, but it did, at least, land on his shoes. Leah was going to have to work on her aim.

“Don’t just stand there and grin, dipshit. You better get to work because I don’t have all day,” she quipped.

As she expected, Chris responded by backhanding her.

These idiots were nothing but predictable.

Leah couldn’t say she had ever been tortured. She had been beaten up a few times in her life, but tortured? Nah.

This was going to be a new experience.

 _Fuck_.

When Chris turned around, Leah tested the strength of her bonds. Unfortunately, this witless ape was apparently good at tying knots. It was going to take a lot to get her out of this.

She sighed. This was nowhere near close how this day was supposed to go.

She thought back to just this morning, when she flew from New York to Los Angeles. She thought back to her simple mission: kill Special Agent Cabe Gallo.

 _Gallo_. Where was he? Was he still alive? Did he get hurt?

Was he looking for her?

Leah did notice that there were only three goons now, which meant either Cabe had gotten one of them, or he was off doing something else. She hoped Cabe had shot the bastard.  
Cabe.

This was all his fault. With his handsome eyes and handsome face and handsome voice.

Leah was no teenage girl. She hadn’t been in almost 30 years. She was a grown woman who took care of her needs. She shouldn’t be so…gooey over a man. Not to mention, she was about to be beaten and tortured. Now was not the time. And yet, even as she was strapped to a chair and bleeding, she couldn’t get his eyes out of her head.

She should have just killed the bastard and been done with it.

But a voice in the back of her head reminded her that even if she had killed him, Andy still would have had her killed.

At least this way when she died, she wouldn’t go to hell knowing she had killed a good cop.

The head goon, the guy who had approached Leah at the car and attacked her in her hotel room, walked up to her slowly. She didn’t know his name, so she preferred to refer to him as goon #1.

Leah tilted her head. “Hello goon #1. Ready for some action?” she asked.

He half smiled. “Andy warned me you like to talk.”

She laughed, which made her cough. The woman shook her head. “No, just stall.”

“And what exactly do you think you’re stalling for?”

“Half the fun is not knowing. Consider it something to beat out of me,” she joked, throwing in a wink at the end.

Goon #1 replied with a swift right, hitting her left cheek brutally.

She swung her face back around to look at him. “Oh come on. Surely Andy also mentioned that hitting me isn’t going to do anything?”

The guy looked blank.

“Oh, he didn’t warn you.” Leah tutted. “Typical Andy. He always leaves things out. Well, I’ll tell you this. Better warn you now than have you waste a few hours. I’ve been beaten before. Hurt. Badly. I don’t give things up. It’s going to take a lot to get me to talk. Speaking of, what exactly do you think I’m going to say?” She was wondering why she was here instead of dead already.

The goon laughed. “Oh, did Andy not tell you?” He grabbed her face with his left hand, digging his fingers into her cheeks and leaned closer to the woman. “You’re going to tell me where this so called evidence is. And then I’ll end your pain. Until then, this is going to hurt.” He pushed her face back as he let go.

Taking a few steps back, the goon waited as the other two men brought out a contraption.

Leah hoped the fear didn’t show in her eyes.

They were going to shock her.

 _Fuck_.

Leah Hudson began to pray that the man she had been sent to kill was looking for her.

Otherwise, she was fucked. And not in the good way.


	11. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

“If you tell us where it is, we can end this,” goon #1 said in a sickly sweet voice. He tried to come across as caring, but Leah could see through it.

As if her bruised and bleeding face wasn’t enough evidence that this asshole didn’t care about her well being.

And there was the whole thing about them killing her once she told them what they wanted to know.

So no, she wasn’t here for this.

“I’d rather have period shits for a week straight. Hashtag _blow me_ ,” she managed to say despite the ridiculous amount of pain her jaw felt.

Her trio of attackers had withheld the shock treatment until they decided they had punched her face enough. The first time they shocked her, she pissed herself.

Torture was not pretty.

Before today, Leah could say she was ambivalent to torture. After all, only terrorists get tortured, right?

Wrong.

Producing a wooden stick, Chris headed towards Leah. She gritted her teeth and pulled tense, terrified of where he was going to hit her.

How long had she been here? An hour? Two? Thirty minutes? Leah had passed out twice from pain so she had no idea how much time had passed.

Chris extended his arm as he neared her and struck her left leg below the knee. She bit back a yell. He hadn’t hit her as hard as she knew he could hit. He drew his arm back and hit her left leg again. Leah growled in pain.

The third time, he hit her pretty damn hard, making Leah finally scream out.

“You’re a shit stain on humanity,” she said angrily, her entire body tense with pain.

“And you help facilitate that stain, don’t you?” he asked, leaning in, mocking her. “You’re worse than me.”

Leah laughed, but her laugh turned to a groan as pain rippled through her body. “I’m better than you, in more ways than one, dick cheese.”

Chris came within a foot of Leah’s face, a smug grin on his face. “You kill people for a living. How is that any better than me?”

“Because I only kill assholes. So you better watch out!” she replied before headbutting Chris.

The goon’s nose broke, spraying blood on his face and a little on hers. Leah leaned back, cringing. Chris staggered back, clutching at his now bleeding face, groaning loudly.

“You bitch!”

“That’s right! And don’t forget it!”

Chris dropped his hands to look at the blood. After a moment, he reached down to pick up a metal pipe. Leah gritted her teeth again, preparing herself for the pain that was about to come.

Turns out, being hit in the stomach with a metal pipe is far worse than being hit in the leg with a wooden stick.

Leah’s piercing scream filled the half empty warehouse.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been two hours and fourteen minutes. With every passing minute, Cabe grew less certain that his group of geniuses would be able to find Leah.

He wondered what was being done to Leah. Had she already talked? Was she still alive? He knew his blood pressure was too high. His heart hurt, in more ways than one.

What kind of hold did this woman have on him?

Cabe had been on a couple of dates since the disaster speed dating night he had with Toby and Walter a few months past. It was hard to meet women given his job and his age. It was harder to meet the right kind of woman.

Yes, Leah was, apparently, a hitwoman. But he couldn’t help but be drawn to her. She was beautiful, yes, but smart. She also had a moral code. That counted for something. Cabe had worked in the government long enough to know that things were not just black or white. Sometimes, things were murky.

Cabe was in the café on the first floor of the hotel, drinking coffee and trying not to worry too much. It wasn’t really working.

“Cabe?” Paige said, walking up to his table.

He smiled at her. “Sit, please.”

She sat across from him, smiling sadly.

“I know, I know,” he said, beating her to it. “I’m too involved.”

“I understand, I think, why you care so much. But she was sent here to kill you, Cabe. That’s a big deal,” she said quietly. She reached out to take one of his hands in hers. “Saving her is one thing, Cabe, but be careful. That’s all.”

Cabe squeezed her hand back. “Thank you, Paige. One step at a time, right? Right now, we need to find her. Her time is running out. The longer she’s there, the worse off she’s going to be and there’s a chance we won’t be able to save her. I need to talk to this guy, Phil, but the Doc’s won’t let me in. Says he’s still not stable.”

“Walt was able to track them pretty far on cameras. That’s got to narrow it down, right? They weren’t planning on torturing her, so it wasn’t like they set something up.”

“Right. It’s last minute, gotta be somewhere close by. Let’s get a map,” Cabe said as he climbed to his feet, letting Paige’s hand go.

She smiled up at him knowingly. “Let’s.”

They headed back up to the hotel room where Walter and Sly were still working. Cabe barged into the room, impatient already.

“Pull up a map starting from the last known position of the getaway car,” Cabe ordered.

Walter gave him a slightly confused look, but saw Paige’s smile behind Cabe and simply did as he was told. “Here,” he said, turning the laptop slightly.

Cabe and Paige gathered behind the young man once again. “Okay. We figure they can’t have been going too far. Best guess is they took her to a warehouse. It gives them space so no neighbors will hear her scream,” Cabe said.

“Okay. We expand the map and in the general area they were going, there’s this area past downtown,” Walter said, expanding the map. “There’s probably twenty warehouses available.”

“They probably won’t be in one owned by a company, unless it’s a front for the Irish,” Happy pointed out.

“Leah made it seem like these guys were new. They probably aren’t getting that kind of help yet,” Cabe said.

“With those parameters, we’re still left with eleven warehouses.”

“Take out any right next to the other nine,” Cabe said. “They’d be too close so if someone heard her scream, they’d get caught.”

“That narrows it down to four,” Walter said. “Still a lot of ground to cover.”

“Not if we use a thermal imager,” Sylvester suggested. “We drive by the warehouses we suspect and see who’s in there. If there’s someone strapped to a chair, it’s probably the right place.”

“Good going, Sly. Now let’s go!” Cabe said, finally filled with hope. It was time to find Leah and end this.


	12. Fire with Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long! I knew what I wanted to happen in this chapter and I just could not get it started. Thank you all so much for your incredibly kind reviews. Please know I read them all and I am so appreciative! There’s still much more to come!

As the car headed towards the small warehouse district, Cabe did his best to calm himself down. He needed to be calm once they got there, otherwise he’d end up dead and so would Leah. Cabe needed to be at the top of his game. There were at least three men, possibly all with guns, he would have to go up against.

He _had_ to be calm.

While Cabe drove, Walter and Sly prepared the thermal imager. It was, hopefully, going to help them find Leah without having to go warehouse by warehouse.

It had been almost three hours since Leah was taken. Cabe still wasn’t sure why he was so drawn to her. Maybe once all this was over, he would move on. Maybe he wouldn’t. He just knew he had to save her. Or at least try. She had chosen not to kill him and so she deserved his best effort.

Cabe just wasn’t so sure all of Scorpion was putting their best efforts in it. They were good people, but he knew and understood that they weren’t so keen on Leah.

Looking in the rearview mirror, Cabe could see Walter and Sylvester working in the middle seat while Happy and Toby were in the far back seats, talking to one another.

“You’re worried,” Paige said from beside him.

Cabe looked back at the road in front of him. “I’m calm.”

“Hmm, yes, but still worried. They’re good at what they do, you know that. They’ll do their best, we’ll find Leah, and then whatever happens, happens.”

Cabe only nodded and focused on the road. No sense in worrying about the future.

It took only a few more minutes before they arrived at the warehouses. Cabe stopped the car, unsure of where he should go.

“Ok, Cabe. Head straight and take the first left. The warehouse three blocks down is the first one on the list,” Walter said from behind him.

The car rolled forward, taking them cautiously to their first destination. The buildings passed by until they found their first one.

“Give me one second,” Sylvester said as he punched buttons on the thermal imager.

Cabe slowed as much as he could, but kept the SUV moving forward.

“There are people inside,” Walter said, looking over Sylvester’s shoulder.

“Yeah, maybe seven on the first floor. Nothing that looks suspicious though,” Sylvester said. “Probably not this one.”

“Okay, on to the next building,” Cabe said, pushing the gas pedal down to move them past the building.

“Take a right at the next corner and then a left three blocks down,” Walter told him.

Cabe drove, his eyes looking for anything out of place, any sign of danger. They were walking, or driving, into an unknown. It made Cabe uneasy and yet he couldn’t stop.

As they got closer to their next target, Cabe slowed the car again and let Sylvester do what he needed to.

“Looks empty,” the young man said as they rolled past the large warehouse.

“Next?” Cabe asked.

“Go straight two blocks, take a right and then it’s four blocks up,” Walter answered.

Cabe headed to their next stop, knowing that there was a 50/50 chance that this would be the one. He made the turn and even before they had gone two blocks, he knew this was the one. The street was far quieter than the other ones had been, and yet one building looked busy.

“I’m picking up some heat signatures,” Sylvester said, his voice getting anxious. “First floor, two people at least and one is in a chair, their body heat is less than the others. I think this is it, Cabe!”

Cabe drove by the building, giving it a quick glance over, trying to compile a plan.

“Next building on the left is empty,” Walter told him.

The agent pulled the SUV into a small lot behind the building and opened the door, leaving the engine running. Everyone else piled out, waiting for orders.

“Here’s how it’s going to go,” Cabe began.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leah spit more blood, feeling it drip down her chin. Her head hurt and her vision was fuzzy, but she could just make out one of the goons in front of her.

“Just tell us what we want to know, Leah. Why are you making this so difficult on yourself?” he asked.

Leah laughed, but it was more of a rasp and she began choking on blood. She ungracefully hocked up a chunk of blood, spitting it on the floor as much as she could, but still more dripped down her chin. “I’m just enjoying our time together, asshat. It’s been a joy,” she choked out. Her chest hurt from what was likely at least two broken ribs, making it hard for her to breathe and speak.

“You’re brave, but stupid. You’re going to die. Just make it easy on yourself,” he said, almost managing to sound sympathetic.

Breathing heavily, Leah looked up at the goon, gritting her teeth. “You don’t get it, do you?” she choked out. “I am _not_ afraid,” she took a deep breath,” to die. Death is nothing compared to life. I’ve,” Leah paused to spit out more blood and try to steady her breathing. She began to worry that she might have a punctured lung. Breathing was becoming harder for her. “I’ve seen people I love die. I’ve lost everything known to man. I’ve been poor. I’ve been rich. I’ve been loved. I’ve been hated. There’s nothing more for me. I’m too old for more kids. Getting married again isn’t a win or lose for me. Growing old doesn’t bother me and not growing old doesn’t bother me, kid.” Leah took another deep breath and let it out slowly. She shook her head. “Death doesn’t scare me. Living does.”

The guy stared down at her, seemingly both disgusted and amazed by her. She hoped he believed her, because she was telling the truth. She’d been alive long enough to know that life sucked. Dying was easy for the dying, not so much for their family or friends.

The family she still had mostly hated her and she had very few friends, so she wouldn’t be very missed in death. Especially if they ever found out what she did for a living.

So what did she care if she died?

Part of Leah wished she had given Gallo the information before she died though. He could do good with it. He would get Andy, Sean, and the others off the street. Save some lives. More than she had ever done.

Leah’s head sank down, her neck being unable to hold it up any longer. Her body screamed at her in every direction. Her list of injuries was too long to mention. She should never have told Andy she had evidence on the Irish. Dumb. She was _dumb_.

“What’s taking so long?” the third guy asked, coming out. “Andy keeps calling. He wants it done. If she won’t talk, just kill her already.”

“Get it over with,” she muttered. “I’m so fucking bored.”

“You just keep talking shit,” Chris, she assumed, said. He grabbed her by the chin and lifted her head up, squeezing her face. “I’m so tired of you.”

“Then grow some ovaries and do something about it, prick,” she snapped.

He stepped back, letting her face go, and backhanded her again. Leah barely felt it. Her face was so numb at this point from all of the hits she had already taken. He was going to have to be more creative than this.

Leah stared off to the right, sighing quietly. How long had she been here? How long had then been torturing her? Asking her over and over and over?

She closed her eyes, shutting the world out. Leah wanted this to be over, one way or another.

“Hands up, weapons down! This is Homeland Security!” someone said over what sounded like a loudspeaker.

Leah’s eyes shot up and she sat up as gingerly as she could, looking around.

Cabe had come for her?

She tried not to get too excited at the thought, but she couldn’t help it. Leah smiled; her first true smile in a long time.

This was going to _finally_ end.

“Fuck!” one of the men shouted. Two of them took off, but Chris stayed with Leah. He stood behind her, taking out a gun and pointing it at her head.

“If you want her alive, let’s negotiate!” he yelled out.

“Okay, let’s talk,” Agent Gallo said from the other side of the room.

Leah silently willed him to be careful. She had hoped he brought a lot of backup with him. They might only be three men, but that didn’t mean this would be a walk in the park.

“You can have the bitch, but I walk!” Chris said.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s going to work,” Gallo replied, his voice sounding closer.

Her heart sped up and her breathing grew haggard. It was getting harder for her to catch her breath.

“Then the bitch dies!” Chris screamed, jamming the gun against her temple.

“Just kill him,” Leah yelled out as loudly as she could muster, which wasn’t very loud. She coughed again, more bloody sputum coming up. She really needed a doctor.

“Fuck you,” Chris whispered angrily against her head.

“Nah, fuck you,” she said. With all of her remaining strength, Leah leaned forward and then threw her head back, hitting Chris in the face.

“Shit,” he yelled out as he fell back, his gun going off.

Luckily for her, the bullet hit the ceiling high above them. Unfortunately, Leah was still strapped to the chair and too weak to do anything about it. Her vision was fuzzy after that head butt. She could hear Chris moving on the cement floor behind her.

“Don’t even think about it, punk,” Gallo said as he came around a box. His gun was pointed behind Leah. “Put it down or I will shoot you,” he ordered, his voice calm and strong.

“God dammit,” Chris cursed.

Leah assumed he put his gun down since Gallo wasn’t shooting him.

“The other two…took off,” Leah said, still struggling to find her breath.

“On it,” he said. The older man took out his cuffs, keeping his gun on Chris. He walked behind Leah and was doing something.

Suddenly, he was next to her. She could smell his cologne. He smelled familiar. _Safe_.

Her head sank down again, her eyes closing.

“Hey, hey now,” he said quietly, in front of her. With a finger, he gently lifted her head up. “Can you walk?” he asked gently.

Leah nodded. “Barely. One leg’s broken. Some ribs broken. But I can get the fuck out of here,” she said, opening her eyes to look at him. The first thing she saw was his baby blue eyes. They were hypnotizing and intoxicating. The concern on his face almost broke her heart. “You found me,” she whispered.

Gallo smiled. “Of course I did.” He gently let her head sink back down and then cut her out of her bonds. Helping her to her feet, the agent began leading her to the door, keeping as much of her weight on him as he could.

Leah gritted her teeth, determined not to cry out even though a horrible, sharp pain was screaming from her broken left leg. She kept as much weight on her right as she could as she hobbled from the warehouse.

They were close to the door when she spotted something from the corner of her swollen right eye. Leah looked up and saw goon #3 with a gun pointed right at Cabe. So she did the only thing she could.

Leah Hudson threw herself in front of Agent Cabe Gallo as the gun went off.

And then the world went black.


	13. Army of Dolls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the long wait. There’s still a few more chapters left in this story, so don’t think it’s over yet! And yes, I’ve already got another one planned. In the meantime, check out https://www.teepublic.com/user/signyc to check out my two Scorpion designs, including a Cabe Gallo for President shirt. I hope to have chapter 14 up in a day or two!

He didn’t see the shooter until it was too late. Leah had already pushed him and jumped in front of him before he saw the glint from the gun. As the bullet ripped through Leah and she fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, Cabe lifted his gun and fired off two shots, hitting the attacker.

Dropping to his knees, Cabe looked around, hoping that the last shooter wasn’t around.

“Leah, Leah!” he called out in a panicked voice, checking on the woman. Her neck was bleeding. Not profusely enough for Cabe to think she had been hit in the jugular, but enough for him to know she needed to get to a hospital quick.

Cabe set his gun down on the ground, pulled off his jacket and held it to her throat, trying to put pressure on the bleeding.

Leah looked up at him under hooded eyes, growing paler already.

“Just hold on, okay?” he whispered. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

She nodded weakly, trying to force a smile.

“Okay, hold the jacket as best you can and we’ll get you up.”

Leah’s grabbed at his bloody jacket, holding it to her throat, though he could see she was too weak to add much pressure. Better than nothing, he hoped.

Grabbing his gun again, Cabe gently helped Leah to her feet, his throat tightening as she groaned. She fell into his side, moaning quietly, but she kept the jacket up at her throat, soaking up some of her blood.

They made their way towards the door, slower than Cabe would like. He knew there was at least one more person out there and they could be anywhere. The pair made it to the door and outside without being harassed by anyone else.

The sun was still out, though it was slowly making its way down. Cabe blinked against the sun and kept moving Leah towards where he had parked the car. Walter, Happy, and Toby were around, keeping an eye out for anyone outside of the warehouse, while Sylvester and Paige waited in the SUV.

“Cabe, is she ok?” Toby asked over the in-ear piece.

Cabe only shook his head.

“We’re on our way to the SUV. I’ll check her out when we get there,” Toby said.

Cabe looked over his right shoulder as best he could as they crossed the street, looking for any sign that the last shooter was out there. He couldn’t see anyone. Looking in front of him, Cabe tried to get Leah to move faster.

He felt his jacket begin to fall to the ground and Leah was sagging in his arms. He looked down at her, his heart breaking. She looked so pale and so weak.

“Come on, sweetheart. We’re almost there,” Cabe said gently, pulling her up again.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, grabbing the jacket again, but she wasn’t able to pull it up to her neck.

Cabe glanced up as someone came around the corner of the warehouse in front of him. He began to lift his gun, but quickly saw that it was Walter. Walter ran towards him and got on Leah’s other side and helped her stand, using his left hand to hold the jacket up to her neck as they moved. Cabe smiled at Walter and the younger man nodded back in understanding.

Moving at a slightly quicker pace, they made it around the side of the warehouse and headed straight for the SUV. Paige was sitting in the driver’s seat, impatiently bouncing in her seat as she watched the trio walk up to the car.

Toby pushed the back door open as they got closer, his eyes wide with worry and that doctor’s compassion that Cabe had come to see every once in a while. Gingerly, Cabe and Walter helped put Leah in the SUV, with Toby helping from the inside. Once she was in, Cabe climbed in behind her and Walter headed over to the other side.

“Jesus, they did the worst, didn’t they?” Toby asked as he looked over his patient.

“She took a bullet for me, Doc,” Cabe said sadly. As Walter climbed into the SUV, Cabe looked up at Paige. “Head for the nearest hospital as quickly as you can,” he ordered.

Paige nodded and took off, pulling out of the lot and back onto the streets. Sylvester directed her from the front as Toby began going over Leah’s injuries. Cabe watched, his heart pounding heavily.

“She’s lost a lot of blood. Broken leg, it looks like. Broken ribs. Probably some damage to her cheeks, judging by the swelling,” Toby said, listing off injuries.

Leah turned her head towards Cabe, her breathing labored. “Water…water,” she tried to say.

“Do you want water?” Cabe asked.

“No…Water-city, Waterford,” she choked out. She took a deep breath, pushing more blood out of her neck wound. “Storage. Unit…number, number 117.”

“There’s a storage unit in Waterford?”

Leah nodded her head ever so slightly, taking another deep breath. Her eyelids fluttered close. “041570. The evidence,” she said, unable to finish her sentence.

Toby and Cabe locked eyes as Toby pressed harder on her throat. Her breathing slowed.

“Go quicker!” Cabe ordered.

“I’m trying!”

The words had just left Paige’s mouth at a high frequency when another car rammed the back of the SUV. The SUV spun around, skidding across the asphalt. Cabe held onto Leah until the car came to a stop. A second later, the car was hit again from the back. The car moved a few more feet and then stopped again.

“Everyone okay?” Cabe asked.

“Walt’s bleeding, but I think we’re fine,” Happy said from the backseat.

Cabe turned to look at her and saw someone getting out of the car behind them. He pulled his gun back out and opened the door. Leaning out, he fired a few warning shots at the person. The guy ran behind his car, pulling out a gun as he went.

“Can you drive?” Cabe asked as he pulled the door shut.

“I think so,” Paige said, starting the car back up. The car began moving, but at a slower pace.

Cabe began to worry as he looked behind him, recognizing the second person in the car as the man he had cuffed to Leah’s chair.

“It’s the guys from the warehouse,” Cabe said out loud.

“Shit,” Leah mumbled from beside him.

“Shit is right,” Toby said.

“We need a place to make a stand,” Cabe said to Paige.

“Got it. Find a place to hide,” she said to herself.

While she drove and Sylvester tried to help her find someplace to buckle down, Cabe got on his phone to Deputy Homeland Security Director Katherine Cooper.

“Deputy Director Cooper,” she said as she answered her phone.

“Cooper, it’s Gallo. We’ve got two shooters on our tail, but I’ve got it covered. I need a medical chopper as soon as possible,” he said quickly.

“Give me your location. And who’s hurt?” she asked, concerned.

“We’re on the move outside of a warehouse district. I’ve got someone who agreed to turn on the Irish. She took a bullet for me and she needs help immediately,” he explained.

“Understood. Where are you?”

As Paige turned down a street, heading for a close cluster of buildings, Cabe gave Cooper their location. “We’re trying to find cover, so I don’t have an exact location yet.”

“No problem, Gallo. Get somewhere safe. You sure you don’t want backup?”

“I’ve got it. Just get a chopper, quick.”

Cabe turned to look out the back window as Paige kept driving. The car was still behind them, though far enough away. Looking down at Leah, Cabe tried not to let the worry show on his face. He didn’t know how long Leah would last.

His worry had to take a back seat as Paige pulled up next to a building that looked abandoned. Once the decision was made to go inside, Cabe let Cooper know the exact location and then he hung up his phone.

“Get out and let’s take cover inside,” Cabe ordered.

He pushed the door open and got out. Paige climbed out and helped Cabe get Leah out of the SUV and into the building. The building was, thankfully, abandoned. Leah leaned heavily on Cabe as they walked through the first floor, heading for what looked like an office on the other side of the room. Once inside, Cabe and Paige helped Leah into a chair.

After everyone was inside, Cabe shut the door and pulled the old blinds closed.

“Don’t die on my account,” Leah managed to say from the chair, a trickle of blood dripping down her chin.

Cabe looked over at her, frowning. “We’re not going to die. None of us are,” he said gently, but firmly. “Help me with this table,” Cabe said to Walter.

The two men grabbed a table on the other side of the room and pulled it over to under the window next to the door they had come through.

“Okay, everyone under the table,” Cabe ordered. Happy gave him a look, but complied with his order. As they knelt under the table, Cabe moved Leah’s chair over so she was next to the table and away from the window. It wasn’t the best place, but it would have to do.

They just had to last a few minutes longer.

Leah opened her eyes as much as she could to look up at Cabe. “I’m okay with dying, you know,” she whispered.

“I’m not,” Cabe said. “Hold tight. We’re going to be fine.” He resisted the urge to touch her face for a couple of reasons, but mostly because it wasn’t the place nor the time.

“Remember, unit 117. 041570,” she reminded him.

Cabe nodded. He wouldn’t forget. Nor would Sylvester, for that matter.

It wasn’t long before Cabe heard a car drive up, skidding to a stop. Then two doors slammed shut.

Cabe knelt in front of the table, just peeking over the edge. He had positioned the bottom blind so that he could just see out.

“Just keep your head down, Cabe,” Walter whispered from under the table. “They won’t find us.”

“There’s about a 78% chance they’ll find us,” Sylvester whispered in a panic. Cabe could hear his heavy breathing.

“Don’t worry. There’s only two of them.” Even as he said the words, Cabe couldn’t help but be worried. He wasn’t worried for himself, but for the others. For Leah. He glanced over at her. Her chest moved with her heavy breaths, but they were getting slower. He didn’t know how much longer she had. At least her throat had stopped gushing blood.

Cabe tracked the two men as they entered the building, moving across the large room. He could read their body language. They were coming for the room Cabe and Scorpion were in.

The two men turned, their guns raised to eye level.

Cabe wasn’t going to give them the chance. He knelt down, raised his gun over the table and began firing at the window. It wasn’t the best angle, but it was going to give them a chance. The federal agent fired off several shots, breaking the windows.

Before running out of bullets, Cabe looked up, but he could only see one body on the ground. There was still one man in play.

He knew he needed to draw fire away from this room and away from the group. So Cabe headed for the door and ran from the room, ignoring Scorpion’s angry whispers. A few feet from the room, he heard a bullet whiz by him, hitting the wall behind him.

The aging man ran faster, heading for a stack of crates and boxes to hide behind. Two more shots went by him. Luckily for Cabe, the shooter had bad aim.

As soon as he was behind the crates, Cabe checked his magazine. He had just four bullets left.

He’d have to pick his shots carefully.

“Just come out and make this easy, so I can finish off the bitch. There’s no need to protect her,” the man said. Cabe could tell he was close. “She’s really not worth it.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Cabe replied. He waited a beat, kicked a box to his right and rolled to his left. Coming around the right side of the stack of crates, Cabe shot off two rounds.

One hit the guy in his left arm. The other hit him in his hip.

Rushing forward, Cabe reached the man quickly and kicked his gun away from him.

“You should have let us go,” Cabe said, standing over the bleeding man.

He shook his head. “Not an option when you work for the people I do.” The man groaned in pain, clutching his arm. “She’s not safe, you know? Not safe at all.”

“I wouldn’t worry about her. She’s pretty smart. I think she’ll be fine.”

The man grimaced, but said nothing more.

“Cabe, the helicopter!” Toby yelled out, leaving the room and pulling Leah on the chair with him.

The agent sighed heavily. He hoped she would make it.


	14. Sleepwalkers Dream

While Toby got Leah to the helicopter and off to the hospital, Cabe stayed with the two men he had shot while they waited for ambulances. He made sure to call Cooper and let her know how it had ended up.

Walter stayed as well. He loved the kid, but he could be awfully judgmental for someone who claimed to not feel emotions like other people.

“What happens next, Cabe?” the young man asked.

“These guys go to prison. We move on.”

“And you’ll go to Michigan?” he pressed.

“No, I won’t. I’ll pass the information on to the FBI. They’ve got gang task forces that have been following the Irish. They’ll finish the job.”

“And Leah? Will she testify?”

“I doubt it. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of woman that will testify against anyone. Depending on what she has in that unit of hers, she shouldn’t have to. But first, she has to live.” Cabe turned to Walter, watching him carefully.

“What do you plan to do next?” Walter asked.

“I’ll get these guys off to the hospital, check in with Cooper, and then head over to the hospital to check on Leah. Toby’s with her, so if something happens he’ll let me know. Why?”

“I’m just trying to understand why you care so much. She came here to kill you.”

“Sure. And she warned me instead, which put her life in danger. And no, Walter, I don’t think you’re trying to understand. You don’t understand why I would care. You’ve always struggled with it and you get angry when you don’t understand something.” Cabe frowned at the younger man. “Some things you can’t understand. Hell kid, even I don’t completely understand it. I don’t know what it is you think I should feel, or not feel, but there’s no point in arguing about it. If she lives, she’s probably still going to prison. I assume she’s murdered people before.”

“So why worry?”

“Because that’s what good people do.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

By the time that Cabe arrived at the hospital, Leah was out of surgery and recovering in the ICU. Standing outside of her room, looking through the window on the door, Cabe watched Leah rest. She looked terrible. Her throat was wrapped in gauze, her face was swollen and her eyes had begun to turn black. Her left leg was in a cast and resting on a sling.

Cabe felt horrible. If he had just listened to her in the beginning, this might have never happened. She could have left the country as she planned. Instead, she was lying unconscious in a hospital bed having almost bled to death.

Because of him.

Okay, maybe not entirely because of him, but Cabe certainly hadn’t helped in the way he wished he could have.

“Can I help you?” a nurse asked, walking up to Cabe.

He smiled at her. “I’m Special Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland Security,” he said, pulling out his ID. “How is she?”

“Miss Hudson has a lot of injuries, but she should be ok. She’ll need physical therapy when this is over, so I hope she has a good support system. Speaking of, does Homeland have information for her family?”

Cabe shook his head. “Not yet, but we’re looking. She didn’t make it seem like she had family or friends, so I’m not sure. But I’ll let you know when we know.” He looked back through the window. “Has she woken up yet?”

“No. Try again tomorrow, Agent Gallo.”

So he did. He stopped by briefly in the morning before heading off to the Scorpion garage. And then he came back after the long day at work and sat next to Leah’s bed for a half hour before going home. During the day, Walter looked up all the information on Leah he could and there was nothing about parents, siblings, or children.

Cabe took it upon himself to be her support.

He came back the next morning and sat with her for a few minutes before going to work. Paige asked about Leah and he told her there was no change. And once again, after work, Cabe headed to the hospital and sat at her side for an hour. Still no change.

Another morning came and went. Another day of work came and went. And for the third day in a row, Cabe visited Leah after work and sat in the chair next to her bed. Her doctor, Doctor Whistler, came in to give him a quick update before he headed home. Leah was finally off the breathing tube and was breathing on her own. She hadn’t had a punctured lung, but Dr. Whistler told him one of her broken ribs came pretty close to puncturing her lung.

Cabe was glad she could breathe on her own. He remembered that Walter’s sister Megan hadn’t liked her tube, so he figured Leah might not like it either. Cabe stayed for a while, watching TV, and before he knew it, he fell asleep.

But he didn’t miss it when a small, hoarse voice called out to him, “Cabe.”


	15. Stay Forever

It had felt like a dream. An uncomfortable dream, but a dream nonetheless. She dreamt of Cabe. Dreamt he visited her side every day, offering her updates on the FBI’s case in bringing the Irish down. He told her about the FBI going to her storage unit. He told her that Andy, Sean, and several other high ranking members of the Irish mafia, in addition to a few hired guns, were now in federal custody awaiting their arraignments.

She woke up slowly, like coming from a haze. The first thing she saw was the hospital ceiling. It took her a second to process what she was seeing. Looking around the room, she came to realize she was in the hospital. Feeling pain, she knew she wasn’t dead. So it wasn’t heaven and it certainly wasn’t hell.

Although some days, Leah was sure she could make an argument for why earth was actually hell.

The next thing she saw was Agent Gallo. The man was asleep in a chair next to her bed, his head drooping to the side awkwardly. He looked quite serene when he was asleep. His wrinkles smoothed out slightly, he looked a good ten years younger than he actually was. As she stared at him, Leah wondered how long he had been there. He was in a suit, so he clearly had gone to work at some point.

How long had she been out? A day? A week? She felt like she had been unconscious for a year and for only a minute, all at the same time.

Looking down at her body, she wasn’t surprised to find her left leg was in a cast. The guy had hit her fairly hard with a metal pipe. She knew without seeing that her ribs had been broken. The thing that surprised her the most was her throat. Leah lifted her right hand, which was in a cast from her hand to her just below her elbow, to her throat. It was wrapped in gauze. What had happened here?

Leah tried to sit up, but her numerous injuries prevented her from doing so. With a sigh, Leah turned to look back at Agent Gallo.

How sweet of him to visit her.

Why, though? Why show her any sort of sympathy?

“Agent Gallo,” she said in a whisper. Leah cringed at her hoarse voice. She needed water.

But Gallo didn’t stir.

“Gallo?”

Still nothing. She momentarily considered letting him sleep.

“Cabe,” she said a little bit louder.

Gallo’s eyes shot open and he sat up, staring right at Leah.

“Water?” she asked.

Cabe took a second to process it, then nodded and got up to get her a glass of water. Sticking a straw in the cup, he walked it over to her and she gratefully took a few sips.

“Welcome back,” he said, watching her drink.

When she was done, he sat the cup on the tray table next to her bed.

“How long?” she asked sadly.

“Day three,” he answered, smiling apologetically at her.

 _Three days_. Jesus Christ. She tried not to cry.

“Andy?”

“I sent along the information to the FBI. They got everything out of your storage unit and based on a lot of the evidence, they were able to make several key arrests, including Andy Greene,” he told her.

Leah let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. It wasn’t going to be clear days from here, but it would be slightly easier for her as long as Andy was in prison. He was probably quite pissed at her.

Well, so was she.

“What next, Agent Gallo?” she asked, staring up at him.

His forehead creased as he thought. “I don’t know. The FBI wants to talk to you, so…that could go anyway, really.”

Leah shrugged slightly. “I’ve never been to prison, but considering what I just went through, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She smiled softly at him, but Cabe didn’t smile back. “Speaking of. What’s wrong with my neck?”

“You took a bullet for me,” he said. There was something in his voice. A question? Concern? Surprise?

“The whole point of me coming back to tell you was to keep you safe as much as I could. Although, now I realize it was never about you.”

Confusion crossed Cabe’s face, his eyebrows sinking in. “It wasn’t?”

“No. Andy set me up. He wanted me gone, for whatever dumbass reason he has, and he knew I’d never kill a cop. Especially a cop with no discernible bad record. He knew I’d be too curious as to why he wanted you gone, so he knew I’d come out here. And that I wouldn’t go through with it. It was the perfect way to kill me. He could tell Sean whatever he wanted and Sean would probably accept it,” she explained. “His mistake was hiring a bunch of low level losers to do the job. I don’t know why he didn’t take it seriously.”

“Maybe he was afraid using a known contact would make Sean suspicious?” Cabe posed.

Leah thought it over. “That could be it. Not to mention, a lot of the known contacts would never do it without a legitimate reason. We may not all get along, and we may be hired killers, but there is still some sort of code amongst us. Andy probably wanted to avoid that, but he messed up.”

Cabe nodded. “Do you think he’ll try again?”

She shrugged. “Maybe at some point, but he risks Sean finding out. Sean was always fond of me, so Andy will have to be careful. I suppose. Or maybe he’ll be very pissed and I’m fucked. Who knows.” Leah smiled at Cabe. “Thank you. You know.”

“Thank you. You didn’t have to take a bullet for me.”

“I wasn’t really thinking about it, I suppose. Besides, you’ve been nice to me from the get go, even though I was sent here to kill you. I was never going to, but the sentiment remains,” she said, almost sheepishly. “I don’t think your friends would have appreciated it if you got shot because of me.”

Cabe laughed; a gritty sound that made her smile. “No, probably not.”

They stared at one another for a moment, smiling softly. Leah was once again lost in his blue eyes, but she let herself enjoy it this one time. Nobody was shooting at them. They weren’t dying. They were just here.

“Have you been visiting me every day?” she finally asked.

It was Cabe’s turn to shrug. “We couldn’t find any family for you,” he explained. “And you need support. So I stop by before and after work.”

The smile fell from Leah’s face. Family. She had family, but she didn’t want them to know what happened. She saw Cabe’s confusion and she forced a smile. “I appreciate it, Gallo. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

Leah felt a blush come to her cheeks. 

_Oh stop_ , she told herself. _You’re not a teenager. You can take a compliment._

“Well, go home Gallo. Get some rest in a real bed. I’ll be here when you come back tomorrow.”

He nodded and picked his suit jacket up from the chair. “Rest easy, Leah. You’re safe here.”

She didn’t completely believe him, but for that night, as she watched the agent leave, she let herself believe she was safe. She let herself believe there could be some sort of future for her here.

But in the morning, she’d remember the truth.

The only thing in her future was prison.

Maybe he’d visit her there? That was a nice thought.


	16. I Want You

The next few days went the same. Cabe would visit Leah in the morning on his way to Scorpion and then he would stop by for an hour or so after work, if he had the time. Leah enjoyed his visits. He was, after all, the only one visiting. It wasn’t like she had friends.

Her days were boring. She tried to move around, just so her muscles wouldn’t atrophy and because it was boring if she didn’t. Leah had gotten to know her nurses very well, including the handsome, if not slightly obtuse, Nurse Henry Jones. In his late 20s, Henry had a brilliant, toothy, smile that he used on all of his patients to try to get them to smile.

Leah spent most of her time in bed, however, due to her broken leg and her healing throat. Doctor Whistler was insistent that Leah give the wound time to close. So she had to stay relatively still.

It was, needless to say, annoying.

Cabe had been kind and brought her a few movies she could watch on a laptop. He had terrible taste in movies though. At first, he had brought her several John Wayne westerns. She had to put a stop to that and asked him for better options, like The Matrix, John Wick, and The Mummy.

She was halfway through John Wick for the second time when someone knocked on her door. Leah paused her movie and looked up.

A brunette woman in a suit stood at her partially opened door.

“May I come in, Miss Hudson?” she asked.

Leah eyed her carefully. The woman was younger than Leah, probably, but not by much. She was gorgeous. Too gorgeous to be in a job that had her wear a boring suit.

“I haven’t been a Miss since I was 18. It’s Mrs. Or just call me Leah. Come in,” she said, motioning the woman in.

“Oh, you’re married?” she asked.

“Haven’t been married since I was 27. But it keeps most of the creeps away,” Leah explained with a small shrug.

The woman smiled. “I’m Director Adriana Molina of Homeland Security,” she introduced herself, pulling her ID out of her pocket.

Leah felt herself grimace as she stared at the ID. “Oh.” Her heart sank. Either she was about to be arrested or something had happened to Cabe. Neither was one she’d like to hear.

“Don’t worry, Leah, I’m not here to arrest you,” she said, trying to calm Leah’s obvious fears.

“Well I am a hitman, so it’s a reasonable expectation.”

Molina shrugged slightly. “As far as I’m concerned, you saved one of my Agents from being killed. And you are helping to bring down some very bad men. That’s not something I arrest people for.”

Leah narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “So why are you here, Director?”

“I want to offer you a job.”

Leah’s jaw dropped slightly. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You are, from what I’ve heard, very good at things involving fighting and guns. But you also have morals, of a sort. I need people like that. People who don’t want to kill innocent people. People who want to protect others. Agent Gallo speaks highly of you.”

She snorted. “No offense, but Agent Gallo doesn’t know much about me.”

“What he knows he likes, Leah. And Agent Gallo’s good opinion doesn’t come easily. He is not bought. Only though good heart, I’d say, do you get Gallo’s good opinion. So take it as you will, but he trusts you.”

Looking away from Molina, Leah thought about what the woman had said. A job with Homeland Security? Could she do it?

Leah Cross, as she was known before her marriage, graduated from High School and went straight into the Police Academy to be a cop in Farmington Hills. It was a fairly boring assignment. It wasn’t like Farmington was known for murder, but she still managed to get herself suspended just a few years later. Her temper made it hard for her to stomach people getting off, particular from crimes like rape or murder. From Farmington she moved to Nashville.

It took Leah only a year of hitting too many murder and rape suspects before Nashville let her go. She then ended up in Omaha, Nebraska. And she tried, she really did. She liked the cops around her and liked her Captain, but her temper got the better of her.

There was a good chance it would happen again with Homeland. Her temper wasn’t any better than it was before. She was still angry about injustice.

Leah looked up at Molina. “What would I be doing?”

“If you pass training, you’ll join a division that is tasked with some of the…dirtier aspects of the job. Sometimes Homeland is asked to care of certain individuals that cannot otherwise be handled. That’s where your expertise would come in.”

Get paid by the government to do what she was doing with the Irish? Leah considered her options.

“And what if I want a desk job?” Leah asked in a quiet voice.

Molina looked slightly surprised, but shook it off. “Then, if you pass training, it could be considered.”

Leah closed her eyes for a moment, thinking on her life. She had never planned on being an assassin, on being a killer. All she ever wanted to do was protect people. Maybe she could do that with Homeland. Maybe she could find herself, the real Leah, in Homeland.

At best, it kept her out of prison.

At worst, she kept being the killer she was.

She opened her eyes again and looked at Molina. “It’s going to be a while before I’m able to complete training.”

Molina nodded. “A spot will be open to you once you complete you physical therapy.”

Leah smiled. “I look forward to serving my country.”


	17. The Monarch

_I looked at the stripes; The monarch flies; I halt my cries. If, my friend, if you can change, perhaps then so can I. I looked at the markings and I looked down to my own. You’re here, I thought. Transform, I said and show them how you’ve grown._ –The Monarch by Delain

 

The weeks had flown by and Leah was finally being released from the hospital. Cabe was going to be there to help her get set up in her new apartment. She had chosen a place close to a rehabilitation center that was going to help Leah get her full range of movement back. She was still in her leg and arm casts, so rehab would go slow at first, but since her ribs had gotten better, Doctor Whistler had signed off on Leah getting to work.

Cabe was worried he’d miss her check out time given Scorpion’s current case. They had left for Seattle two days ago to help solve a crisis regarding a bridge. The case had taken much longer than they originally thought it would.

Luckily, as the sun rose, they were on a plane back to Los Angeles.

Still, Cabe worried Leah would have to leave the hospital on her own. She was capable, but Cabe wanted to help. And it was hard to do things in a leg cast, especially if your right arm was also in a cast.

He felt like they had grown close over the past few weeks. He continued to visit her twice a day, when he could, and looked forward to seeing her each day. The former assassin had been surly at first, but had opened up. It was easy for Cabe to make her smile now. And boy did he love to see her smile.

Once the flight landed at LAX, Cabe bid his farewells to Scorpion and took a taxi to the hospital. He had hoped to go home and change, but looking at his watch, he knew he didn’t have the time. So Cabe and his travel bag headed up to the third floor to find Leah, who was hopefully still there.

Stepping out of the elevator onto the floor, Cabe shouldered his bag and headed down the hall towards Leah’s room. He stopped at the front desk to say hi to the Nurse on duty, Jenna Franks.

“She’s got a visitor!” Nurse Franks said, her eyes wide with glee.

“A visitor?” Cabe repeated, confused.

“She is very ready to go, Agent Gallo. She’s been complaining that you’re late,” she added, ignoring his question.

Cabe smiled and kept on to Leah’s room. Getting to the door, he slowed.

“I wish you hadn’t come to the hospital,” he heard Leah say.

“I’m not getting MRSA or whatever,” a young female voice replied.

Cabe peeked around the door and saw Leah in her wheelchair with a small suitcase on her lap. Standing in front of her was a younger woman. While Leah was a brunette, the other woman was a redhead. Her hair was far longer than Leah’s and slightly wavy and thin, compared to Leah’s flat, thick hair.

“Agent Gallo!” Leah said, seeing him.

Cabe smiled. “I hear you’re ready to leave.”

“I was ready weeks ago. Nobody should have to stay in a hospital for more than a couple days. It’s hell,” Leah said.

The young woman turned and upon seeing Cabe, she broke into a wide smile, her green eyes almost shining.

“So this is Agent Gallo, hmm?” she asked in a knowing voice.

“Oh for fucks sake, Mary,” Leah admonished the woman, rolling her eyes.

“Yes, I am Agent Gallo. And you are?” he asked as he extended his hand to shake hers. The young woman took his hand in hers and held it in a firm grip.

“Mary Hudson,” she answered.

Cabe dropped her hand in surprise, looking between the two women. Leah seemed to have gotten her eyes stuck in a rolled position. “Hudson?” he questioned.

Mary nodded. “Yeah. She’s my mom,” she replied in a matter of fact voice.

Cabe could have been knocked over by a feather, he was so shocked. “Mom?”

“Sorry, Gallo. She’s my husband’s niece,” Leah explained, looking annoyed by Mary’s bombshell.

It all clicked for Cabe and he visibly relaxed. Leah had explained to Cabe that her late husband’s brother and wife had died in a car accident. She left out the part where Leah and her husband apparently got custody of the child.

“Sorry about your parents,” Cabe said to Mary.

She shrugged. “I don’t remember them. My brother and I were a year old. To us, mom and dad were always Leah and Jeff.” She looked back at Leah. “But Mom has always been bothered by it,” she said in a teasing tone.

Leah looked at Mary pointedly. “I’m not bothered. Just slightly annoyed by the way you always say it. Now, can we go? I don’t want them to get the idea I should stay for longer,” Leah said.

“I’ll drive,” Mary said as she walked behind the wheelchair.

“Do you have everything?” Cabe asked, moving out of the way so Mary could push Leah out of the room.

“Sure do.”

“Then let’s go.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mary Hudson, who was a 20-year-old college student at the University of Michigan with her twin brother, was quite a talker, Cabe was learning. Once they were in Mary’s rental car, she let Cabe know she knew just who her adopted mother was.

Leah spent the whole 20-minute car ride from the hospital to her apartment groaning and complaining from the back seat.

“I thought I taught you to keep shit to yourself,” she whined.

“You said Agent Gallo can be trusted. So I’m trusting him,” Mary shot back.

Leah replied by groaning loudly.

“So, Agent Gallo. Tell me, what’s it like working with those geniuses?” Mary asked. “It’s got to be amazing, right?”

“It can be. It can also be frustrating,” he answered.

“Really? How so?”

“They lack a certain amount of self awareness, you could say.”

“They can be assholes,” Leah answered from the back seat. “That Walter kid hates me, I’m pretty sure.”

Cabe chuckled. “Yeah, yeah he does.”

“To be fair, you did come here to kill his friend. So…,” Mary pointed out, trailing off.

“Semantics. I was never actually going to kill Gallo.”

“Walter couldn’t know that. You’ve got to remember to see it from other people’s perspectives,” Mary said as she pulled into the parking lot at the apartment.

Cabe looked back at Leah. “It’s something we have to remind the geniuses of, you know.”

Leah grimaced at him. “Great. You can tell your friends I also lack a certain EQ. Then we’ll be best friends,” she joked, throwing in a wink.

Cabe laughed and turned back around. Once Mary parked the car, Cabe got out and unpacked Leah’s wheelchair, keeping it in place as she threw herself out of the car and into the chair.

“The one positive of my casts is I need people to take care of me,” she commented as Cabe wheeled her into the apartment building.

“Yeah, but you’ve got to be nice otherwise no one will help you,” Mary said, walking behind them with Leah’s suitcase.

Leah shrugged. “I can be nice,” she said quietly, almost like a child being scolded.

Cabe smiled. He liked seeing Leah and Mary together. It wasn’t necessarily that Leah was a different person, but there was more gentleness to her.

Inside the apartment, Cabe set his bag down near the door and wheeled Leah into the sparsely furnished living room.

The trio looked around the room, none too impressed.

“At least you have a couch,” Mary finally said.

Leah sighed loudly. “I’m going to need to borrow your government issued SUV, Gallo.”

“Oh, and why’s that?” he asked, looking down at her.

“Going to need to pick up a few things. Speaking of,” she looked up at him, “where the fuck is your car?”

“We just got back from a case. I didn’t have a chance to get back to my place,” he explained.

“Oh, was it fun?” Leah asked, seemingly interested.

“It was…different,” Cabe said. “Like they usually are with Scorpion.”

“Why don’t I go get us something to eat and you can tell us all about it?” Mary suggested, looking as excited as her mom.

Cabe looked between the two women, both silently asking him to say yes. “Yeah, why not?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Thank you all for reading! This brings us to the end of this story. I’ve already got at least two more stories planned. Next up is a quick one shot and then I’ll do the next story, which will be longer and more involved than this one. I was still figuring out the characters. We’ll be seeing a lot more of Scorpion in the next story, that I promise!
> 
> Season two will be on DVD this week and that will help me write future stories.


End file.
